^ Haha, I put a like since it did make me smile and the UEFA Europe League is presented as one of the possible exits
And they lost today at home, didn't they? :? Seems the current trend in Romanian football - one season champions, the very next one a mediocre campaign.
Belated update on Thursday's matches:
FH 1-2 Braga
Seemed like another scandal for Braga as the ref whistled for half time. FH played well during the first half and came out on top. Nothing predicted Braga would react well in the 2nd half but eventually they did. I suppose superior individual talent & technique and the eternal luck factor helped a bit. Seems pretty easy at home now, only a rather impossible scandal would make the Icelandic team go through.
Marítimo - Dinamo Kyiv 0-0
Unexpectedly a much more intense and interesting match. Marítimo played really well - defended really well most of all. All credit to their manager Daniel Ramos, if he does another good season with them he'll go places. Their Brazilian goalkeeper Charles had a quite inspired night as well (which he guaranteed at the end of the match was only possible because it was done 50:50 in collaboration with God
). Other than him, inspired e
bitions by Erdem Sem (seems he has become the midfield's boss) and Ricardo Valente (grabbing a lot of free kicks and clinical in getting Khacheridi expelled - although it did seem like a forced decision to me).
But I'm afraid that's it for them. They can play as well in the Ukraine but they won't be able to handle the amazing atmosphere of their fans + I'm sure that Dinamo will show it's true face in this match, attacking even more and creating more proper chances on a stadium that isn't the can of sardines they played at in Madeira.
As for the performance of Dinamo players earlier this week, the goalkeeper was pretty safe although he did not stand out as much as Marítimo's own. Vida commanded the defense with class as usual and had the cold head most Dinamo players hadn't. Khacheridi fell victim of playing too much with the emotions (plus the already mentioned bad refereeing) and so did Garmash, which despite making a very intense and physical e
bition did not leave many fans on the island (everytime he'd touch the ball he'd get...well, like Russia at ESC).
Derlis González was uninspired and Yarmolenko was intensively marked, therefore having no chance to shine. Although the talent of the Ukrainian star did appear here and there. Will certainly have a much more interesting display in Kyiv. Up front, some interesting details by their African player (not sure I remember the name...Mbokani?) but they've had much better strikers in the past.
I think Dinamo really has this at home even though they had a sort of unexpected hard time away.
As for my team, what a match yesterday! I could not believe it. That was pure joy. Had not seen my teem playing so well in quite some time now. I hope they use the momentum and bring it up to the Bucharest match. Yesterday's match was such a relief following the very late victory against Setúbal at home and the disappointing draw with Steaua at home. Finally the way to the goal has been found. V. Guimarães were 4th last year and 4th they are when it comes to attendance. Incredible atmosphere in the stadium made by their fans (the ones who were not distracted throwing bottles at the field) but boy, did they have to swallow their pride and keep quiet after a class e
bition like that! The Steaua staff also must be thinking how have we gone from a pale e
bition at home against them to a victory like that yesterday.
The way to goal had to be found from mid-range as I wrote here on my last post and with Bruno Fernandes playing on the starting 11 this time, the perfect player for that kind of shooting was at disposal. 3 minutes into the match and suddenly a bomb out of nowhere was in the back of the net of Guimarães. Pure class and genius from Bruno. Was only the 3rd round of the championship but I'm sure it will already be competing for the best of the year when we're already far into 2018.
The goal seems to have messed the heads filled with pride of the Guimarães players and before 30 minutes had passed we were already winning by 3. Our matador Bas Dost made peace with himself at last and found himself on the way to what might be yet another massacre season in terms of goals scored. The 3rd one was pretty simple and the 2nd one looks simple as well but as for the later, if one sees the images closely enough his work inside the area to get free from the defenders and find himself in a position of ease to score the header is simply a delight to watch.
At this point some people were reminded of our match in Guimarães last season. We also went as far as scoring 3 without response but back then everything changed until the end of the match after we conceived an inexcusable 3-3 draw (one of the many negative moments that marked last season, hard to forget).
2nd half washed such bitter memories away easily however. Who else but the little magician Bruno Fernandes. Yet again. From outside the area. Another unexpected bomb. Not as amazing as the first one but still nothing short of beautiful. Guimarães never reacted really, seems like the word humiliation just stuck to their mindsets and the fifth came as a natural being finalized by our captain Adrien. Guimarães walked away in luck at the end of it all, it was 5 but it could have been 10. Bruno Fernandes alone could have scored 4 himself (and for sure he's going to be on the starting 11 on wednesday, so beware Steaua!).
I thought everyone on the pitch yesterday was on an inspired day. Patrício had a couple of "butterhands" moments, but no cigar. He was very safe and assuring through the rest of the match and the older he gets the more I appreciate his value in our team. It will be a sad day when he departs, a true loss for the team, he's a class act and it's only our luck that no team in Europe really wanted to take him away from us yet, not even after becoming Europe's champion last year.
Piccini and Coentrão, our side backs...even they amazed me. Much more offensive than usual, good stuff. Coentrão handled the pressure from the home fans well (he really became a target at some point...not sure what for, just know that he needed 3 times to make a harmless throw in after being showered in objects from the stands. And then everytime he touched the ball he was booed to no end. But he kept his head cool).
Mathieu and Coates were very solid, Coates standing out the most yesterday. Mathieu had to leave the pitch late into the match with a poossible injury though, this might be good news for Steaua.
Battaglia is impressing the more he plays on William's place. Very intense, aggressive but not overly and has good feet, not the typical bulldog defensive midfielder most teams have. At times he even aided the central defenders duo, it was interesting to watch tactically.
Gelson was perhaps the least impressive unit on the field yesterday. And it feels weird to say this because he's obviously the most technically talented, praised to heavens by nearly everyone every match. He had his chance even but I think he still gets lost within this realm that he gets into, where he thinks he can just dribble anyone and act like that is all he needs to do. But wrong, he has to be much more objective. As much as his dribbles leave supporters and opponents in awe, he needs to start passing better, shooting better. I think this is the reason he hasn't gone to one of the European giants yet.
Acuña had perhaps his least inspired match ever since joining the team but he did make an assist after all and I think he's just accusing some fatigue as he fell into the starting 11 as a natural as soon as he arrived in Portugal and he already has nearly half a season under his legs coming from Argentina.
Adrien might have not been at his usual level but I thought still much better than vs. Steaua. It's possible that on his mind a 2nd Summer of intensive speculation about his future might affect his game a little.
About Bruno Fernandes, everyone knows that he has a very bright future. It's not every young foreign player that breaks into Serie A and calcio as easily as he did. For the past 3 seasons he learned a lot at Udinese, Sampdoria, etc.
I think he drank knowledge from one of the best schools in the world when it comes to the nr. 10 position and now it is showing off as he ages. His skinny body constitution and fresh young face really are deceiving. The future of the national team's midfield lies in him and he already gave proofs of that this Summer in Poland while playing for the U-21. He clearly can play alongside Adrien as it was shown yesterday (people feared our football would become incompatible with two creatives playing side to side) and who might suffer from this the most is Podence, since he was coming on as the 1st option. Adrien as an 8 and Bruno as 10 really seems to be the best design for our midfield. But when your manager is some like Jorge Jesus, someone known for his aversion to playing young players, you never know what the future might bring (he got really lucky with this magnificent win yesterday, now I can see him being excused even if end up losing to Steaua. After all he's right when he says that the CL is more for the money, it's hard that a Portuguese team will win it again - long gone are the surprising days of Mourinho's Porto. Even with a good team I think it's clear from these last editions that some teams will always be benefited. Barcelona and Atletico fell as victims to that having 100x our budget so who are we against the boring controlling big sharks of every season. So naturally, Europa League is much more of a realistic project and the championship that escapes us since 2002 is indeed the priority).
As for Dost, it's good that he's found himself on the way of goals again. His confidence should rise now and it'll be a pleasure seeing him scoring even at least half of what he did last year (though everyone's expecting even more than last year, of course).
From the subs, Iuri Medeiros wasted his chance a bit. Literally, he did fail an already made open goal. And then he's also not impressing yet again on another return from a loan. He does quite ok in smaller teams but I have yet to see him doing something really impressive for us.
Jonathan Silva came as a sub for Coentrão late into the match, this was obviously a sub made to rest the later for Wednesday's match. Still great influence on the last goal, taking the initiative down the flank. Something the "experts" pretend to not have noticed since it's not "appropriate" to praise certain players. The last sub, André Pinto, also came on because of physical matters (in this case the possible injury of Matthieu) so it was more of a needed substitution than anything else. I think possibly also a joke on the fanatics of V. Guimarães since he did play for Braga several seasons and they are archi-rivals after all.
All in all, I'm much more hopeful for Wednesday following a display like this although I am fully aware that it will be a completely different film in Bucharest. I hope for yet another intense match and may merit reward the best team when the final whistle blows. I'm also hoping for a peaceful outcome between the fans though I know that it is a match that will be deciding a lot of money and prestige. But I'll be happy if there's no bad blood.
And also if Contra does not appear in public wearing a skirt a few days following the match
I fear more for the behavior of some of our fans actually. Although we're not famous for being violent there are some fans I do not associate with and can see bring up up trouble (particularly the younger, ignorant fans of the new generation). But I see this being more possible to happen in Bucharest however since despite what you say the atmosphere on stadiums there can get pretty crazy.
