Champions League 2012-13: FC Porto and Malaga CF

FC Porto, Portugal

UEFA Ranking: 8

Champions League participations: 17 (missed only 1994-95, 2002-03, 2010-11) - - best result – Champions (2003-04)

Total transfer amount of all players: 173,8 mln €

The most expensive players: Joao Moutinho
(26 mln €), James Rodriguez (18 mln €), Fernando (16 mln  €), Rolando (12 mln €), Danilo (10 mln €), Steven Defour (10 mln €), Nicolas Otamendi (9,5 mln €), Maicon (9 mln €).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Malaga FC, Spain

UEFA Ranking: 77

Champions League participations: 0

Total transfer amount of all players: 94,8 mln €

The most expensive players: Jeremy

Toulalan (15 mln €), Isco (12 mln €), Oguchi Onyewu (7 mln €), Nacho Monreal (6 mln €), Jesus Gamez (5 mln €), Eliseu (5 mln €), Javier Saviola (5 mln €).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We are continuing to study the non-capital teams in this year’s Champions League edition. Only two teams have shown a 100% defensive result so far. These teams are Porto and Malaga from the Iberian Peninsula.

Porto was founded in 1893 and has become the symbol of the region ever since. The Portuguese champions represent the Os Tres Grandes or The Big 3 of the Portuguese football, the other two being Lisbon clubs Benfica and Sporting.  The rivalry between Porto and these teams is, of course, extremely hot, especially the one with Benfica. The recent years have been victorious for the Dragons, who have never occupied a place lower than the 3^rd in the domestic league since 1976. They have achieved 26 league, 16 cup and 19 supercup titles in their history.

The history of Malaga is different.  Los Boquerones (The Anchovies) have had a very complicated history. There is no need in going into details of the two teams, which eventually formed Malaga Club de Futbol S. A. D. Some highlights of the modern history would include a couple of notes: the team carries its current name since 1994. In 2007 they were still struggling not to be relegated from Segunda. Only 5 years later they are thrashing everyone in UEFA Champions League.

The common between the teams could be their presidents, who are central figures in the current football life of their countries. And both of them represent the two classical president types of modern football. Jorge Pinto da Costa is a local authority, having a huge investment in his team’s recent successes. The fact that 19 of the 26 Porto league titles were earned since 1982, when da Costa overtook the presidency, speaks a lot. On the other hand he is a usual topic of football- and non-football-related scandalous stories. Malaga’s president is Sheikh Abdullah Al Thani, who joined the team in June 2010. Then rumors of a new Manchester City or PSG started to develop. The scenarios were similar. The Sheikhs looked serious in the beginning. They converted the team into sports ambassador in the world, replacing the betting company logo with UNESCO on their shirt, signed stars like Demichelis, Julio Baptista, Toulalan, Santa Cruz and Saviola, and occupied the history highest 4th place in the domestic league. But the billionaire got tired of a funny toy pretty soon. Already 2 years after Al Thani’s appearance team members bumped into some major problems: they weren’t paid salaries. Cazorla and van Nistelrooy publicly accused the club and left it in the summer. The story is to be continued…

Thanks to its successful European history Porto beats rivals Benfica in the count of overall titles. Porto’s museum is full of trophies. The fact that makes Portistas proud over Benfica fans is that The Dragons have earned part of these trophies in the 21^st century and not in the distant past. Bright heads like Jose Mourinho and Andre Villas-Boas got promoted to Chelsea exactly after conquering everything around in the European arenas. These two are golden heroes of FC Porto history, each of them having won a treble (in 2003 and 2011) for the team. But we’d rather concentrate on the achievements of the current coach, Vitor Pereira, 44.

Malaga’s European story is shorter. They won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2002. Full stop. This is their second season in Europe, so the history is just being built. However, a keen statistician could find something for Malaga CF to be proud of; they have never lost any European two-match tie by a score. The only time they left the tournament was after losing to neighbors Boavista on penalties.

Both of the teams can boast historical stadiums. The Dragons play at Estadio do Dragao, which means Dragon’s Stadium. It was inaugurated before the Euro 2004 and was one of the main venues at the tournament. It has got a capacity of 50 399. Malaga’s venue is La Rosaleda, the capacity of which was increased from 28 963 to 29 500 spectators, thanks to UEFA-required adjustments. The stadium has also been a major tournament arena, hosting three matches at the 1982 World Cup. This is where the famous pre-season Costa del Sol Trophy is taken place. Malaga’s new president promised a new stadium for 65 000 spectators.

The Porto fans are called Portistas or Tripeiros, and the most dedicated ones have organized communities called SuperDragoes and Colectivo Ultras 95. Malaka Hinchas are their Andalusian response. The Malaga fans are typical noisy happy Spanish fans, getting noisier when meeting rivals Sevilla. They have their own anthem, La Bombonera. The club has introduced a 2D barcode on the shirt, to interact with the fans, who want to be up to date.

And again we don’t know what to expect from Porto. Year after year several major profiles leave the club, but the team wins on and on.  When Jardel, Deco, Lisandro Lopez, Mourinho, Villas-Boas were leaving, there were always new names flourishing instead. This year departures included players like Alvaro Pereira (10 mln €), Fredy Guarin (12,5 mln €), and the biggest star of recent years Hulk (40 mln €). Still, they come and win matches against Sporting and PSG. They have 7 wins and 2 draws in their active in the season so far.

The Anchovies are having a pretty good season so far, too. Cazorla, van Nistelrooy or Rondon are not with the team any more, but it hasn’t turned into a complete disaster for the Andalusians, though. Their youth school has got a reputation of producing talented youngsters, who are going to overtake the starting line-up positions soon. And while they are on their way, likes of Joaquin, Eliseu, Isco and Saviola are there to bring glory to Malaga. It is not known whether they will get tired of their president’s attitude or not, BUT as long as they play, they deliver. Let’s enjoy. They are currently in a comfortable number three position in the BBVA league, ahead of Real Madrid, Valencia and others.

A Porto Profile: James Rodriguez, or “El Nuevo Pibe” (the new Carlos Valderrama), or the South American Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the main global uprising stars. He is the captain of the new Colombian golden generation; Toulon 2011 best player. There is no need to doubt, that we’ll see this generation in action at the upcoming World Cup. As the two nicknames suggest, there are two different types of players in James Rodriguez. He is a fantastic playmaker, whose sharp passes contribute to most of the goals scored by his teams. On the other side he is a great winger with some amazing dribbling ability, famous for scoring some tight angle goals from time to time. He has got no problems with either right or left feet. After a more-than impressive month James was rewarded the Portuguese Player of the Month award in September. The Porto nr. 10 has got a 45 million Euro release clause, so shocking bids for the 21 year old player are welcome.

A Malaga Profile: Isco is not worse than James. He is a year younger and has also been invited to defend his country flag, though in the youth sections. But Isco is interesting to the all-star Spain national team; he has already been sitting on the bench there for a couple of matches. This proves the high rank of the Malaga youngster. He is a future Spanish superstar, typically possessing exceptional technique, vision, accurate passing, agility and dribbling. After Isco made the Zenit defenders turn into spectators in the Champions League opener, pundits have started to talk about him. The topic is by far not covered yet.  

Porto tactics: 4-3-3, 4-5-1; Helton - Danilo, Maicon, Otamendi, Alex Sandro - Fernando, João Moutinho, Lucho - Varela, Jackson Martínez, James.

Malaga tactics: 4-2-3-1, 4-1-3-2, 4-2-2-2; Willy - Jesus Gamez, Demichelis, Weligton, Monreal - Toulalan (Iturra), Camacho, Eliseu, Joaquin, Isco – Saviola (Santa Cruz).

Porto coach: Vitor Pereira; the Porto defense is pretty consistent, with 4 + Fernando, while Lucho and Moutinho, dictate the play with their crucial passing. Everything that has to become an attack is made in midfield. Then they assist one of the talented forwards, depending on the weaknesses of the opponent. The attack is really interesting this year, where the main actors are James, with his witty movements, Varela, with his speed, and Jackson, with his finishing abilities. The combinations are always clever and the attacks are wide. Surprisingly, Rolando, who is valued 12 million Euros, is not a part of Pereira’s team. His transfer to another club didn’t happen this summer. He played only 1 game this season.

Malaga coach: Manuel Pellegrini; the famous Chilean appeared in charge of Malaga after his adventures with Villareal and Real Madrid were over. He doesn’t have as many resources here as at Real, but some quality players are still there to shape results. One of the main weapons of Pellegrini is the positioning of Joaquin and Eliseu, who both smoothly move to the center, thus increasing the threat caused by Isco and Saviola, meanwhile leaving space for the full backs to cover their wings.