Diogo Costa reaches 100th clean sheet for FC Porto | OneFootball

The monumental save that Diogo Costa made with his left leg in the 68th minute of the match against V. Guimarães – stopping a deadly header from Lebedenko – not only preserved the goalless scoreline at that moment (which Alan Varela would eventually break near the end), but also allowed the Porto captain to reach a remarkable milestone in his career: it was the 100th match in which he kept a clean sheet for FC Porto’s first team (134 in total in his career). In the club’s history, only three other goalkeepers have achieved such a feat: Zé Beto, Vítor Baía, and Helton.

In this current league season alone, he already has 14 clean sheets in 18 matchdays, an impressive number, especially when compared to last season, in which FC Porto only recorded 16 games without conceding throughout the entire competition – in other words, as the second half of the season begins, he is practically matching that total. Across all competitions, there are 17 matches without conceding, putting him ahead of David Raya (Arsenal) and Trubin (Benfica), who each have 16. No other goalkeeper in the major leagues has a similar record. “Diogo Costa was impeccable. It’s part of the game, and having one of the best goalkeepers in the world is a source of pride for us. We prefer that he only plays with his feet, but sometimes he needs to make saves. He was very brave in the air, and in matches like this, with many duels and a lot of ‘electricity,’ it’s very important to have a goalkeeper who helps win games,” praised Francesco Farioli.

The count began precisely on his debut, against Santa Clara, in the League Cup, on September 25, 2019. Six years later, Diogo reaches the milestone against V. Guimarães, just as Helton did in March 2011, with Villas-Boas at the helm. It’s worth recalling that Vítor Baía reached the hundred mark against Braga, on October 4, 1992, and Zé Beto against Benfica, on October 23, 1988.

There’s an old saying that those who don’t concede goals are closer to victory, and the numbers of Diogo Costa support this idea: he emerged victorious in 93 of the matches in which he kept his goal untouched.

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