The distance is not great, but the journey between Porto and Arouca, full of curves and curves on arrival at the village in the Serra da Freita, ended in a mishap that could be fatal for FC Porto’s main objective in 2023/24: winning of the national title. In a match in which Arouca’s Spanish attacking trio (Jason, Cristo González and Rafa Mujica) made all the difference, the “dragons” once again showed themselves to be a lackluster team and, with the 3-2 defeat, they finished round 21 of the I Liga, seven points behind leaders Benfica and Sporting – the “lions” still have a game to spare.
For a team whose ego was damaged by a draw at Dragão in the last round, the start of the match in Arouca could not have been worse. With a play designed using a ruler and square, almost always with the first touch, the Arouquenses left the Porto players looking at the ball and, after 36 seconds, at a disadvantage on the scoreboard: after an excellent combination from Sylla and Jason, Cristo González placed it in the area and Mujica, with a header, showed why he is one of the best strikers in the championship.
The blow could have left marks on the “dragons”, but half a dozen minutes later, Robson Bambu, carelessly, fouled Evanilson in the area. When taking the penalty, the Porto striker made it 1-1. With two goals in nine minutes, the game could finally settle down.
With the strategy of recent weeks (4x3x3), FC Porto began, from then on, to have control of the duel, appearing frequently close to Arruabarrena’s goal and, at 15′, the second Porto shot forced the Uruguayan goalkeeper showing attention.
Arouca, who were looking for an unprecedented run of four consecutive victories in the I Liga, seemed to be in trouble. But Daniel Sousa’s Arouca has already shown that it is a tremendously treacherous team. With the match apparently controlled by the Porto fans, the Arouquenses always went on the attack with discretion and, in one of these initiatives, the second penalty was awarded, after Pepe deflected the ball with his hand. Face-to-face with Diogo Costa, Cristo didn’t make it easy, putting Arouca back in front.
As had happened at the beginning, FC Porto’s reaction could have been immediate, but Evanilson’s double was blocked by a 25 centimeter offside.
With a substitution made close to half-time – Varela, injured, gave way to Eustáquio – the Porto players had a strong start in the second half and, in less than a minute, had two good opportunities: Francisco Conceição (49′) and Nico González (50′).
The problem is that FC Porto already had too much speed for Arouca’s curves and counter-curves. And it went head to head with the quality of Arouca. Without denying the opportunity to take advantage of the space given by the “dragons”, Daniel Sousa’s team attacked with the talented Spanish attacking trio and, after Mujica and González, it was Jason who left his signature: the “10” exchanged eyes to Fábio Cardoso and scored another goal of enormous quality.
With two thirds completed and two goals behind, Conceição still launched all the attacking options he had on the bench (Taremi, Gonçalo Borges, Toni Martínez and Iván Jaime), but FC Porto already seemed to have lost its way for a long time. . However, a failure in Arouca’s defense still allowed Francisco Conceição to reduce the score in the 87th minute, but the goal was insufficient to prevent Arouca from winning, as they always showed they were a team with head, body and limbs.