FC Barcelona secured its presence in the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League after two consecutive eliminations, after coming back with a score of two goals to one against Porto at the Estadio Olímpic Lluís Companys.
In addition to securing his ticket to the next stage, he was very close to confirming first place, which he will achieve with just one point on the final day.
Porto was not intimidated as a visitor and presented the clearest situations since the birth of the match. Taremi opened the scoring, but was offside. However, a few moments later, Pepé was able to gain strength in the rival area and scored 1-0 in favor of the Portuguese team with a strong cross shot for the partial 1-0 in the 30th minute.
Just two minutes later, in the 30th minute, the response from one of the Portuguese in the Blaugrana cast appeared: Joao Cancelo. The former Benfica confirmed his important contribution to the Catalan team’s offensive and scored 1-1.
Joao Felix, the other Portuguese from Barcelona also identified with Benfica, took the assist from his compatriot Joao Cancelo and converted the final 2-1 on the fifth round of the UEFA Champions League group stage.
After failing to place among the 16 of the competition in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 editions, Barcelona was able to leave the “curse” behind and for the first time in the post-Lionel Messi era secured its place in the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League.
MVP of Barcelona canceled
The Portuguese Joao Cancelo was the main protagonist of Barça’s victory against Porto (2-1), a victory that allowed the Blaugrana to certify qualification for the round of 16 of the Champions League.
Cancelo played on the left wing and came away with a goal and an assist, he won the MVP of the game and expressed the happiness of the locker room for continuing the path in the highest continental competition.
“I already said at a press conference that it was a final. We won it, which was the most important thing, and we managed to put this club in the round of 16, which is where it deserves to be,” Cancelo said.
“When the results do not come, everyone’s confidence is not the same. When you are confident everything works out, but when you don’t it seems like everything is going wrong. We have a group of mature and adult people and the youngest ones. On a human level it is spectacular. We deserve this victory. We have to enjoy, rest and think about Sunday against Atlético de Madrid,” said Cancelo.
Asked about his change at the end of the game, Cancelo revealed that “in the two games with the national team and the last one in Vallecas I already felt my hamstring a little loaded,” but he also noted that “I think it’s nothing and I’m going to do everything to to be against Atleti.”
“I feel good playing on the right or the left, in the middle too, but what I try is to do my best to help the team achieve its goal. That’s what I did today. Balde also deserves to play because he is a great player. We have a group of great footballers and we have to recover to try to win on Sunday as well,” Cancelo concluded.
Xavi happy for the classification
Barcelona coach,
“At Barça, all the problems are never solved, but today is a day to congratulate the team and the club for having qualified for the Champions League round of 16 by playing well in many phases of the game,” Xavi explained.
The coach admitted that “after 0-1 everything looked pretty bleak, but we had a winning mentality in many phases and in the second half we were much better, I’m happy, very happy.”
Individually, he highlighted “Cancelo, who played a great game. Iñaki has had a great personality, not only because of the stops, but also because of his release of the ball with his foot. He has been extraordinary on a big Champions stage. And Joao Felix needed a goal, it is important for him.”
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