TFT Issue 50!
FreeHowdy guys and girls!
Featured game
Porto vs CSKA Moscow – under 2.5 goals at 4/5.
Today’s featured game is the UEFA Europa League encounter in Oporto between Porto and CSKA Moscow. The first leg ended 0-1 in favour of the Portuguese giants so their Russian counterparts have it all to do here.
A lot of people will be jumping on the Porto win here and given how convincingly they’ve played on every front this season, I can understand that. However, I can’t say that I agree with it because of their talented manager Villas-Boas. He is literally the new Mourinho. I had my doubts about that when he was dubbed it by the Portuguese press but I have little doubts anymore having seen the efficiency, drive, and belief of the team under his stewardship. Porto now play not as a flambuoyant side but as an efficient unit of productivity and Villas-Boas will not have his players use energy unnecessarily due to competing on various fronts. He fielded a full team against Uniao de Leiria lately despite the Liga Sagres title virtually being guaranteed to them because he wants to win it early and then rest players and sure enough, Porto won the game 0-2 without needing to perform excessively well. Hell, he even pulled Moutinho etc. off early for a rest. This guy knows exactly where to use his energy and how to set up his team and I’d be surprised to see Porto going for the win here as CSKA Moscow are particularly good away from home and have good memories of trips to Portugal over the past few years en mass. I think Porto will score if given the chance but their ultimate aim will be to contain CSKA Moscow, just as they did against Sevilla CF (and failed in a 0-1 defeat!) – it doesn’t make sense for them to go gung-ho here!
Visitors CSKA Moscow, however, are not well-placed to obtain a result here. They’ve been selling players off for years and it’s catching up with them now. CSKA Moscow are still a very effective unit but they become more “Russian” each time I see them. That statement may look stupid but what I basically mean is that they don’t score goals often without set pieces nowadays and focus far more on defence than they do in attack as opposed to the time when Krasic, Carvalho, Jo, and Vagner Love would destroy sides for fun. CSKA nowadays are a good defensive unit but the reliance weighs heavily on Vagner Love’s shoulders and he doesn’t have the consistency nowadays that he once did, talented though he remains. CSKA have some good midfielders to support their attackers but they lack a lot of muscle in the team and in all true, if they didn’t have that backbone of players who had been there for years in defence (Akinfeev, Ignashevich, Berzeutskiy brothers) then I think they’d have fallen from power some time ago as their attack doesn’t impress me at all anymore. CSKA are decent at keeping the ball and are good at keeping sides out but goalscoring remains elusive for them so I think they’ll struggle here.
Against Amkar Perm at weekend, CSKA Moscow managed a 2-0 victory thanks to two goals from towering defender Ignashevich and that sums up CSKA perfectly at the moment – their biggest player scored two goals in a game against an inferior side as their attack failed time and time again. Set pieces are their biggest threat at the Estadio do Dragao as they have a bigger team than Porto but the rest of their game doesn’t concern me. I don’t expect Porto to go for this; I think we’ll see a composed game from both sides with few goals because CSKA don’t really have an alternative approach and going all-out doesn’t suit Porto because of their result at Luzhniki.
With the above taken into consideration, taking under 2.5 goals at 4/5 appeals to me a lot here.
Team news – Porto miss Sapurano, Serenoo, Souza, Alvaro, Mariano, and Maicon.
Verdict: Under 2.5 goals at 4/5.