AS Monaco - Porto: Falcao is the key to the match

(Baonghean.vn) - AS Monaco's best striker, striker Radamel Falcao, will be able to relive sweet memories when he welcomes FC Porto, his old team, in the second match of the Champions League group stage.

In Ligue 1, Falcao is the leading scorer with 11 goals after 7 matches, far ahead of the next player Cavani of PSG with only 7 goals. His double in AS Monaco's victory over Lille (4-0) in Ligue 1 last weekend helped him increase his total number of goals in his European career to 201, with Porto, Atletico Madrid, AS Monaco, Man United and Chelsea. An extremely impressive number that the Colombian player has achieved in his football career and it certainly hasn't stopped yet.

Leading Europe

Striker Falcao is expected to be the key to the match. Photo: Internet

Last season, Falcao scored 30 goals as Monaco won the Ligue 1 title and reached the Champions League semi-finals. With 11 goals in just seven Ligue 1 games this season, Monaco are second, one point behind PSG. This has never happened in Ligue 1 in 43 years.

More impressively, Falcao only needed 12 shots on target to score 11 goals, an incredible scoring efficiency. “Even Falcao at Porto didn’t score that many goals,” he boasts of his current form. The 31-year-old is currently leading the scoring charts in all five major European leagues. A miraculous revival is coming for Falcao after years of gloom due to the consequences of injuries.

The Colombian international has won two national championships in Portugal and France, as well as two Europa League trophies with Porto and Atletico. For Falcao, his former club Porto was the launching pad for his later successes. It seemed that injuries and loan spells at Manchester United and Chelsea would end his playing career. But with his determination, and the encouragement of his colleagues at AS Monaco, Falcao revived and became Europe's top scorer. In a conversation with Canal+, Falcao said: "I am grateful for the efforts of the team and thank God, I played very effectively. It was the most outstanding period of my career, I prayed a lot to get to this moment so I was able to play so many matches and score so many goals."

Key to the game

Goalkeeper Iker Casillas is in great form for Porto. Photo: Internet

At home stadium Louis II, Falcao will welcome Porto, the giant of Portuguese football, to play the second match of the Champions League group stage in the early morning of September 27 (Vietnam time). In two seasons at the Portuguese team (2009-2011), the Colombian striker scored 72 goals in 87 matches. Thanks to Porto, the name Falcao became attractive to big teams in Europe.

It was 13 years after the 2004 Champions League final that the two clubs had the chance to meet again. That year, Monaco, led by Patrice Evra and Fernando Morientes, defeated many European giants, including Real Madrid and Chelsea. However, unfortunately for them, the coach of their opponent Porto was coach Jose Mourinho. At the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on May 26, 2004, coach Mourinho and his students won 3-0. Porto won the European Cup for the second time, and European football saw the appearance of a great coach named Mourinho. Portuguese football still remembers the names Jorge Costa, Ricardo Carvalho, Deco, Maniche, Pedro Mendes in the Porto squad that year.

Can AS Monaco at home reclaim the debt of losing 0-3 to their opponent Porto? This season, Porto is also in good form in the Portuguese Championship, winning all 7 matches, scoring 19 goals and only conceding 3. Therefore, striker Falcao will be the key to this match.

AT