Ian Cathro on FC Porto: “They’re becoming almost a football machine” | OneFootball

Ian Cathro had words of praise for FC Porto, Estoril’s opponents this Saturday in the Matchday 29 clash of the Liga Betclic. Asked whether the Dragons would arrive at Amoreira under pressure, given that Sporting could move closer to the top, the Scottish coach highlighted the quality of the side led by Farioli.

“Everyone knows how difficult this game will be. We are seeing significant progress from one of the biggest clubs in this country. From what I see and from our analysis of this FC Porto team, I wouldn’t say it’s there yet, but I think this team is in the process of becoming almost a football machine,” he said.

“Looking back, among the big teams in Portugal, we could perhaps say that about Jorge Jesus’ Benfica, a football machine, and more recently Amorim’s [Sporting], which spent months at that level as well. It seems this FC Porto team is capable of reaching that level. We know we’re going to have a difficult match, but we’ll still go out there and play,” he stressed.

The Canaries’ coach also admitted some frustration over the defeats in the two most recent matches, although he remains confident. “It may be the first time in history that Estoril are in 7th place and we feel like we’re in crisis. That’s how we feel. I think we’re having some difficulty dealing with the level of frustration we’ve felt throughout the season. It seems like we’re getting to a point where we can match the level of praise with points, but we’re still far from that,” he noted.

“We’ve been getting praise and I feel there is genuine respect for our work, for the quality of the players, for the way the team works, but the praise and the respect are not aligned with the number of points we have, and that brings us a lot of frustration. Looking at the last two matches, we fell a little short. We have six more games and we’re going to do everything we can to get as many points as possible, because we can still achieve our objective,” he added.

In the first half of the season, Estoril lost 1-0 at the Dragão despite putting in a positive performance, but this time the coach expects a different game both on… and off the pitch: “I don’t need to look too far back to feel confident about this match, about our ability to compete tomorrow night. I see that every day. We don’t have to go back to the last game against this team. No two games are the same; it will be completely different for several reasons, and we will definitely have different players on the pitch. We want the game to be very different, and you know what I’m referring to…”

Elsewhere, Cathro confirmed that Ferro, João Carvalho and Guitane are available, but left open the possibility that not all of them will be at 100 percent, and he recalled the limitations the team has faced in recent weeks. “We’re going through a difficult spell in that regard. It was obvious when we couldn’t fill the bench in the last round. We are closer to having more options on the bench tomorrow, but with some limitations. There is a difference between being available and being available… we played a match with almost all of our centre-backs injured; only one of them took the field,” he pointed out.

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