To keep a revitalised Messi quiet
world, as it’s difficult to think of a job more suited to N’Golo Kante.
Could this be his career performance to go with his career achievements so far?
It represents a big game in Conte’s career, too, since he still hasn’t won a knockout competition and still hasn’t had a truly momentous Champions League campaign and it now represents the best hope to make this a successful season.
Barcelona aren’t as sensational as they have been, but new manager Ernesto Valverde has made them a more dogged side.
They are a bit more calculated, and constrained, if always looking to launch Messi. Complicating that, though, is the likelihood that the Catalans will strengthen in the summer.
Underscoring this game, then, is the remaining intrigue over Eden Hazard’s future.
He looks ready to go to another level himself, and a face-off against Messi might only further fire that. It should fire this tie, and is better than being fired by some of the ugliness that has done so in 2005 or 2009. This might just be their best tie yet, and that is saying something. ON the surface, of all Liverpool’s potential knockout phase opponents, Porto were probably the preferable choice.
An early exit would have been expected if Xabi Alonso had drawn his former club against one of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Juventus. All three have issues this season but all three have consistently progressed to the latter stages of this competition in recent years as well.
The two other names in the hat offered kinder ties but both came with significant drawbacks. Basel may have only scraped through one of the weaker groups, but ask Gerard Houllier and Brendan Rodgers about their memories of playing at St Jakob Park in this competition. They are not pretty.
AtieagainstShakhtarDonetsk wouldalsohavebeengladlytaken, but the Ukrainians have impressed so far in this competition and Jurgen Klopp’s side can easily do without a 3,354-mile round journey to Kharkiv this Valentine’s Day. The Iberian coastline seems much kinder.
Porto’s record in the Champions League this season, meanwhile, offers yet more hope. Sergio Conceicao’s side qualified with the fewest points of any of the six clubs Liverpool could have faced and did so in arguably one of the more favourable, if still one of the most evenly-balanced groups.
Though they scored 15 goals, with five coming in their final match against last season’s semi-finalists Monaco, Porto shipped 10 — four more than Liverpool — and were beaten by the other two in Group G: Naby Keita’s RB Leipzig and this year’s surprise packages, Besiktas. So yes, on the surface, it is a favourable draw.
That’s just the surface though, and for an impression of how much a surface-level reading tells you about a team, apply the same method to Liverpool. Do that, and you have a team that qualified with the second-fewest points of any group winner, winning only three times in another relatively favourable group: twice against the champions of Slovenia and just once against the champions of Russia.
The point stands: Porto may have been one of the kindest draws on offer to Liverpool in the round of 16, but Liverpool were one of the kindest on offer to Porto too. Having avoided the likes of Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City, the 1987 and 2004 European Cup winners will by no means dread this two-legged match-up, especially as they have the attributes to frustrate and perhaps overcome Klopp’s side.
Conceicao prefers an organised, disciplined 4-4-2 and is not afraid to play off the back foot and have his players sit tight to frustrate opponents — a style Liverpool have encountered problems against on occasions this season, not least in Sunday’s Merseyside derby. Hector Herrera, the club captain, and Danilo Pereira will marshal the midfield.