FC Porto B host FC Vizela on Monday at 18:00 at Olival | OneFootball

In the fifth round of Liga Portugal 2, FC Porto B face FC Vizela (Monday, 6pm), in a match that João Brandão sees as a “great challenge” against “a competent opponent and a perennial candidate for promotion”. The coach highlights the advantage of playing at Olival and hopes for a strong turnout from the fans, while also calling for patience and high standards at this early stage of the season. Annual Seat holders have free entry to the mini stadium at Olival.

FC Vizela “We are going up against a competent opponent and a perennial candidate for promotion, a side that this year renewed that ambition by keeping the best players in Liga Portugal 2, such as Heinz Mörschel and Bright Godwin, and by strengthening with the experience of Luís Rocha and Anthony Carter, a historic goalscorer in Liga Portugal 2. However, I am certain that FC Vizela will also come up against a competent team, with very strong energy, focused on growing and on what it needs to add to its game, with players who are eager for a win and really want to produce a different performance from the one they gave in the last league match, but who are also proud of what they managed to build in the Youth League game.”

Home factor “Playing at home in front of our fans is always an advantage. We always feel extra motivation when we play at our home, in our own space and in front of our supporters. I hope they turn out in force and show the necessary patience at this early stage of the season, while still remaining demanding in line with FC Porto’s standards, which are to play to win, to play with commitment, ability, focus and concentration.”

Game plan “We are going to face a context similar to that of the opening rounds. We are by far the team that suffers the most fouls and our opponents clearly intend to stop our game and intimidate our players through fouls. By the fifth round we have already suffered 93 fouls, a difference of 16 compared to the second team that suffers the most, but on the other hand we have also reached the end of matches with the feeling that the opponent gets away with that aggressiveness. This is the context we find today in Liga Portugal 2 and one we have to adapt to. It is something we do not control and cannot change. The only thing we can change is our attitude towards that context by being bold, aggressive and by stopping the game when we have to. Above all, we have to be much more intense in our circulation, preventing the opponent from getting into contact or stopping our game. We have to be very direct in the final third and have a very strong ability to react to losing the ball, in line with our positional attacking play and by bringing numbers around the ball in moments of transition.”

Positive week “It was a very positive week, not only because of the match we had in midweek, but because of the energy the team showed early on. The team felt it did not perform well in the last league game and it is essential that we understand our problems so that we can then solve them. In the Youth League match we put in a good performance in a different competition, it was a very positive game from my point of view, but now we have a new challenge with a new story, in which we have to play to the maximum of our ability, focus and intent in order to get what we want from this game: victory.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.