Rui Silva wasted time but says: “Porto had few big chances in either game” | OneFootball

Rui Silva spent the full 90 minutes throwing himself over the ball, dragging out restarts and inventing knocks, yet at the end he had no qualms about stepping up to the microphone and claiming that “FC Porto had few clear-cut chances to score, both in one game and the other.”

An intriguing analysis, coming precisely from the goalkeeper who benefited most from every stoppage, every drawn-out substitution, every second pushed along on the clock. If FC Porto really created so little, it remains to be explained why the Alvalade side was in such a hurry to burn through every second of possession outside Sporting’s box.

In his reading of the tie, the Portugal international served up the usual script: “A game of resilience, of suffering when it was time to suffer, and having the ball and personality. Over the two legs we were superior, we had a lot of quality with and without the ball.” There was suffering, certainly. Superiority on the ball, though, was well hidden beneath the green-and-white shirts in theatrical falls at the slightest touch.

The keeper also took the chance to complain about Sporting’s schedule: “Against Arsenal, despite being knocked out, we had a great tie against one of the great teams in the world, then we lost the derby against our rival, it was tough, especially at home, we fell further away from our objective, winning the league, and then three days later coming here to contest the second leg of the semi-final is not easy, physically, mentally or emotionally.” A complaint that conveniently ignores the reality of a season in which FC Porto also had a pile-up of European matches, travel and fatigue, without making a banner of it at every microphone.

He left with complaints about his strapped-up left thigh. “In the thigh, in the calf, in the ankle. It’s part of it, a lot of games in the legs, a lot of wear and tear.” Perhaps the calf was feeling it above all from the repeated trips back and forth to the touchline to delay the restart of play.

There was resilience, yes. FC Porto’s, in trying to play football against an opponent determined to turn a semi-final at the Dragão into a manual of anti-football.

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