Lopetegui applauds Porto achievement
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Article summary
Julen Lopetegui hails FC Porto's achievement in beating one of the "greatest teams" while FC Bayern München will be ready for the second leg, insists Josep Guardiola.
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• Julen Lopetegui says Porto beat the "greatest team in the world in terms of possession"
• Lopetegui praises his side's "ambition" following the 3-1 victory over visitors Bayern
• Bayern's Josep Guardiola: "We are sad but have six days to prepare"
• The second leg takes place in Munich next Tuesday
Julen Lopetegui, Porto coach
Playing against Bayern is always difficult, but we made a great start to the game against the greatest team in the world in terms of possession. In the first half maybe we should have kept the ball better but we corrected that in the second. Jackson Martínez showed good signs yesterday and we decided to risk him [following his injury absence].
The match in Munich will be different and we will not be able to count on two important players [the suspended Danilo and Alex Sandro], so we will have to find solutions. It will be a very difficult game, we are still only halfway through this tie against one of the best teams in Bayern's history. We were great tonight and I want to congratulate this group of players. This team has lots of ambition.
We are not dreaming, we are just working hard everywhere, in every area of our play, defensively and offensively. The fans never fail us, they helped us, giving us the energy we needed to get through the bad moments.
Josep Guardiola, Bayern coach
This was a typical UEFA Champions League game. After ten minutes we were already 2-0 down which was obviously not good for us. We are down but we have six days to prepare for the next match – we will keep training and will try to play better in the second leg. Of course Thiago [Alcántara]'s goal is important but it is not decisive.
We were not surprised by Porto's start to the game. I knew we were going to face a very good team, we knew they had a good attack. The quality of this game was at the highest level, we are lucky to be in this phase of the competition. Jackson Martínez is a top player. Casemiro and [Hector] Herrera played very well. In the Champions League you have to be practically perfect to win a match. It did not go well but we have six days to prepare.
