Villas-Boas on draw and Porto target: “Quarters were always the aim” | OneFootball

André Villas-Boas addressed the Champions League draw. The FC Porto president assessed the opponents and the market.

On the sidelines of the Champions League draw, which confirmed FC Porto’s presence in the competition, André Villas-Boas commented on the opponents, the attention being paid to the Polish market, and the situations of Diogo Costa and Victor Froholdt.

«General assessment of the draw. It’s always difficult. We’re talking about the highest-level competition, which has radically changed its competitive format in recent years, and FC Porto has to respect its history. It carries that weight, it wants to do well, a place in the quarter-finals would always be a major objective, but we’ll take it step by step. We need to settle back into this return, among the clubs we’re facing, with experience in this Champions format. We have a commitment to winning that has recently been rediscovered with coach Francesco Farioli, we have a competitive team to go toe-to-toe with the Champions League sides. Great responsibility».

«Assessment of the group? It’s a return to the competition after a long time. FC Porto are two-time European champions and are in the top five for Champions League appearances. It’s a fantastic feeling to be back. The draw is always complicated, especially against English teams. We’ll have many great reunions, with teams with whom we’ve done transfer deals, starting with Feyenoord, with Gonçalo Borges and In-beom Hwang. At PSV with Luuk de Jong. It’s important that he is invited and honoured at that match. We could also potentially return to La Cartuja, where FC Porto won the UEFA Cup. Many good things. It is also a way for FC Porto and Liverpool to come together and pay tribute to Diogo Jota, at Anfield. A good draw, with plenty of emotions mixed in».

«Return of Oskar Pietuszewski? Oskar will be back in around 10 days, I’d say. He suffered a relapse of the muscle injury he had in pre-season, in the same area. He’ll come back strong and we miss him. One more week or 10 days».

«Poles at FC Porto? It has been very good for us. Jan Bednarek came first, with all the leadership ability and defensive qualities he has. The second was Kiwior, a great deal for FC Porto in the final days of the transfer window. An extraordinary player, who came from a big Premier League club. They have both been very good for our defence, where our leadership capacity has been very strong. Then Oskar arrived, whom Jan and Jakub helped bring in and integrate. He has been a great asset for FC Porto. We are very happy and it is an honour for us; more and more Poles have been coming to the city of Porto. We are FC Porto, we always want more, but we know that our discipline and desire to win are second to none».

«Polish market? We find the development of the Polish market very interesting and we have an excellent relationship with Jagiellonia. It has been very interesting to see Polish players exploding onto the scene, and Oskar Pietuszewski is one such case. We expect great things from him; he will help us build our history. We have been paying close attention to the Polish market, it is something we are working on. They have a good golden generation, and we also ended up talking about Mazurek».

«Final days of the market? We’ll see. I think there are things we can try to do. The coach would also like to do them. The market can fluctuate a lot in the final days. Last year, we also carried out deals in the final days. We have a fairly balanced squad, with one or two gaps that we want to address if the market allows it and under the conditions the market permits. We may also be vulnerable to the market’s own radical changes and to the assets we have. It hasn’t closed yet, we have a few things we are considering, we are talking to some clubs about some players. The aim will always be to strengthen the team

«Future of Victor Froholdt and Diogo Costa? We cannot speculate about that. Victor is a player who adapted to the FC Porto environment like no other and is one of the club’s best assets. He is in the top 10 of the Golden Boy, it is a source of pride, and the FC Porto shop always comes at a high price. Diogo is our captain and we cannot let him go under any circumstances

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