This Wednesday, FC Porto regained its attacking flame to reach the quarter-finals of the Portuguese Football Cup, continuing to defend the scepter with a 4-0 win over Arouca that allowed coach Sérgio Conceição to make history.
At Estádio do Dragão, in Porto, Brazil’s Galeno put the national champions ahead in the first half, in the 31st minute, leading Spaniard Toni Martínez to “jump” off the bench at half-time to leave the opponent unresponsive . unprecedented hat-trick, on 54, 57 and 90+3.
Sérgio Conceição won his 216th win in his 300th game against FC Porto, which he has coached since 2017/18, having already equaled José Maria Pedroto’s record, also during a reception against Arouca (5-1), on the 14th matchday of the I Liga, on December 28, 2022.
Remaining third in the championship, the ‘dragões’ appear in the group of eight finalists of the Portuguese Cup for the sixth consecutive season and will visit Academico de Viseu in the next stage, after facing off against the II Liga club in the League Cup ‘final four’, while Arouca again missed out on the ‘quarter’, which they only played in 2012/13 and 2015/16.
As he had advanced the day before, Sérgio Conceição kept faith in the ‘eleven’ from the ‘zero’ with Casa Pia (0-0), from the 15th round of the I Liga, with the exception of the goal, where Cláudio Ramos maintained his fitness as a starter in the ‘queen race’, replacing Diogo Costa.
A detour from Matheus Uribe to a free kick from David Simão almost “betrayed” the goalkeeper of the “blue and whites” in the early stages, but the tendency of the first leg gradually unfolded towards the goal of Armando’s team Evangelist.
New to the home win against Estoril Praia (2-0) along with the reinforcement Weverson, João Valido triumphed in two games with Mehdi Taremi before the quarter of an hour and saw João Mário cross before a ‘failure’ in the frontal zone by Gabriel Veron , in the 21st minute.
Arouca’s wait-and-see attitude, with the usual ‘tap’ Ismaila Soro sinking to the centre-backs in the moments without the ball, revealed a fatal foul after half an hour, as Taremi Galeno launched, which struck Tiago Esgaio with speed and shot defeated. to count.
The lead could not be cut off by the absolute control of FC Porto, who threatened another goal four minutes before the break, when Matheus Uribe’s header was saved by João Valido, who stopped a ‘shot’ by Toni Martínez after returning from the dressing room.
Veron’s substitute proved more effective in the 54th minute, receiving a pass from Taremi and taking pressure from Soro to undo the visiting ‘keeper’, taking advantage of a low cross from the right from João Mário to ‘double up’ in the small area. 57.
Losing all hope of fighting for continuity in the Portuguese Cup, Arouca approached the last half hour in effort management, as the ‘blue and whites’, who kept the cadence in ‘shots’ on the crossbar from Galeno, in the 59th minute, and Marko Grujic, at 76, next to another attack from Taremi denied in an attempt by Valido, at 73.
The biggest ovation of the evening came in the 77th minute, when Pepe returned to the field 32 days after the injury suffered in Portugal’s defeat to Morocco (0-1), in the ‘quarters’ of the Mundial2022, playing the usual bracelet received from Iván Marcano from ‘captain’.
In the third and final minute of stoppage time, João Mário, who had shot close to goal, again ‘drove’ to the right after 85 minutes and cross, with Toni Martínez taking advantage of a rebound from Mateus Quaresma to end the game in style advance of an undeniable success.
Source: DN
