FC Porto won the Iberian Cup thanks to a 2-1 victory over Getafe, at Estádio Municipal de Portimão. The Dragons have yet to lose in this pre-season. Leandro Cabrera gave the lead to last edition’s of the Spanish League fifth club, but the oldest player in the blue and white squad (Pepe, 36) started the turnaround that would be finished by the youngest, Fábio Silva, two days after his 17th birthday.
In the third match played in six days, from Tuesday to Sunday, Sérgio Conceição repeated only two players in comparison to the teams that faced Fulham and Real Betis from the start: Pepe and Sérgio Oliveira. Interestingly enough, the two Portuguese international stars had a saying during the match.
In the second-half, when FC Porto was increasing the pressure to reach the tie, the central defender scored, in a nice header in the far post, following a corner-kick taken by the midfielder on the left (52m).
Just like what happened against Betis, in the semi-finals, the Dragons started behind on the scoreboard, but were able to react. The blue and whites started better, facing an aggressive opponent, but was unable to score due to misfortune, when Soares had already been replaced by Zé Luís, due to injury.
Luis Díaz wasted the best opportunity on minute 22, when goalkeeper Leandro Chichizola failed to clear the ball and it went straight at the Colombian. The winger, however, missed his tempo, cut inside and ended up shooting for the Argentinian to save it. After that, Marcano headed outside the post after a free-kick taken by Alex Telles, and Danilo, trying to finish a play started by Romário Baró, allowed the goalkeeper to save it.
Against all odds, Getafe scored, from a corner-kick, with Leandro Cabrera making the best of being alone and headed at the back of the net (39m). Unaffected, FC Porto continued to look for goal, and saw Luis Díaz waste two opportunities (44m and 48m) and Sérgio Oliveira one (47m).
As expected and entirely fairly, the Dragons reached the tie 52 minutes in, by Pepe, in a match where Sérgio Conceição reduced the number of substitutions and only started substituting players after the hour mark. After that, there was a period of bad football, with fights, hard tackles and little football.
Wanting to keep the siege, the blue and whites returned to pressure and were able to win the match in another corner-kick. Youngster Fábio Silva only needed eight minutes on the pitch to score his first goal for the main squad, at 17 years and two days old. Alex Telles took the corner-kick, Zé Luís headed, Rúben Yánez had an incomplete save, and Fábio Silva was in the right place to push the ball in. It was a fair victory in another positive test for FC Porto.
Source: FC Porto