Player Ratings Porto 2-3 Krasnodar Champions League 2019- Wanderson stars as FCP knocked out

FC Porto were stunningly knocked out of the Champions League in the third qualifying stage as Russian side Krasnodar beat them 3-2 at the Dragao, thus sealing the tie on the away goals rule. Porto had won 1-0 in the first leg a week ago, and many assumed it would be a formality for them to progress, especially at home, but Krasnodar stunned them with three first half goals- one from Tonny Vilhena and two from Magomed Suleymanov.

Here are the player ratings for Porto 2-3 Krasnodar from the Portuguese newspapers. Krasnodar’s Wanderson received special praise, with one paper even giving him a perfect 10 for this game.

Not such a great evening for Porto players like Saravia

Read more

Player Ratings Dinamo Kiev 3-3 Club Brugge Second Leg Champions League 2019 | Percy Tau Red Carded, Mignolet ships in three

There was plenty of late drama in Kyiv as Club Brugge scored twice to draw the game 3-3 and win the two legged tie 4-3 on aggregate. In the first leg that marked Simon Mignolet’s debut for Brugge, the former Liverpool goalkeeper had kept a clean sheet. Here he shipped in three goals, but was still one of the better Brugge players on show, as can be seen in these Belgian paper ratings below (he got a 7/10- the only other players with a 7 were Brugge’s three goal scorers on the evening)

Percy Tau was red carded (two yellows)- a tad unjustly, as Brugge coach Philippe Clement mentioned after the game. Nevertheless the South African star was criticised for “forgetting his defensive duties” at certain times in the fixture, and was rated a 5/10

Read more

Will Albirex Niigata’s winning streak in Singapore be halted this year?

The latter half of this decade has seen some unprecedented domination from Albirex Niigata Singapore in the city state. The team, a subsidiary of the well known J-League club by the same name, won 11 trophies in a row between 2016 and 2019 (League, Cup, League Cup and Community Shield), even managing to do a stunning quadruple in the process.

Albirex have won the league for the last three seasons in a row and went unbeaten to the title in 2018, finishing a whopping 23 points ahead of their nearest rivals. They had won their maiden title in 2016 by a single point and their second by 11 points in 2017, but 2018, the year when the S.League was officially rebranded to the Singapore Premier League, saw the Japanese outfit take their dominance to another level.

They scored 69 goals en route to the title and conceded just 17 from 24 games. It was a clean sweep at the league’s end of the season awards too for the club- the Player of the Year, Young Player of the Year, Coach of the Year and Top Scorer all went to Albirex players.

Read more