The dream becomes a nightmare again: Antwerp is overwhelmed by Porto after the break and is left with zero out of nine

The dream becomes a nightmare again: Antwerp is overwhelmed by Porto after the break and is left with zero open

No luck for you, poor Jean. After Barcelona’s five-hit goal and Shakhtar’s three goals, Jean Butez had to turn around four times against Porto, while (this time) he couldn’t do anything about it. Antwerp simply does not manage to perform at Champions League level for the full ninety minutes. It gave away another lead, leaving it with 0 out of 9 and making European wintering increasingly difficult.

Toby Alderweireld really wanted to bring the Champions League to Antwerp(s). He did it, especially with his title goal in Genk, and the supporters have not forgotten that. Before kick-off they honored the captain with a gigantic tifo in Grandstand 4. Nice surprise for Alderweireld, who went to thank the supporters, and it was not the only one. The chef/coach’s surprise walked to his right and was called Ritchie De Laet. After missing six games due to a knee injury, the right back was suddenly back in the team. Bataille moved to the left, where he was favored over Wijndal.

Photo: BELGIAN

Mark van Bommel was clear in advance. “If you want second or third place, you have to win tonight,” he said in front of the VTM cameras. Of course, that didn’t mean that his team would push forward from minute one and take crazy risks. You don’t want to give an international (sub) top club like FC Porto tons of space on the counter. But the most important thing for Antwerp was that it was straight into the match. It was Butez who had to intervene first – on Galeno’s attempt – but on the other side Diogo Costa also had to be on his guard a few times, especially with Muja’s cross shot.

In midfield, Arthur Vermeeren did his thing as always. On the fifteen minute mark he provoked the first yellow card by advancing after a clever steal. Eustaquio ran after him and almost tore his shirt. It could be that he just really wanted that shirt – after all, the Belgian is making more and more of a name for himself – but then he could also just ask after the match. Perhaps it should also be mentioned: a little later Vermeeren seriously asserted himself. After Varela had kicked around a bit, he pushed him some more. There’s some spice in it, you know.

Loss of ball (!) Vermeeren

Next to Vermeeren was Alhassan Yusuf, who, as expected, replaced the injured Keita. The Nigerian started well, but after twenty minutes he got away exceptionally well. With a stupid loss of ball he created a huge opportunity for Taremi. In the end it was Yusuf who blocked his shot – with his arm, but right next to his body – so he corrected it himself. And fifteen minutes later he did much more than that. After Janssen had kept his man talking, the ball suddenly fell perfectly in front of Yusuf’s right. Well, perfect… In the replay it still turned out to clash treacherously. So the fact that he kicked the leather against the net in a controlled manner was really well done. The 1-0 was a fact and the Bosuil went crazy. Our colleague next to us received a notification on his smartwatch that we were approaching 100 decibels.

The dream becomes a nightmare again: Antwerp is overwhelmed by Porto after the break and is left with zero open

Photo: REUTERS

Full of adrenaline, the Antwerp players went looking for a second goal, but it was no longer possible. An extra boost was (or seemed to be) the dropout of Wendell, who was already insecure. Evanilson relieved him. It was now crucial to remain calm in the second half and not to lose the game like against Shakhtar. But as we were typing the previous sentence, it was already like that. Vermeeren of all people – who did not pass a single pass before half-time – tried to dribble in where he could not, lost the ball and was the basis for the 1-1. Evanilson – yes, that substitute – aimed just wide of the post thanks to a slight deviation. Played for a minute and then something like that.

One-time football

We wondered: was that why Van Bommel had not celebrated the opening goal too much? Yes, he had clenched his fists, but otherwise he had remained quite stoic. He may have known that the road was still very long. Now he had to passively watch as his players made more and more mistakes. After Coulibaly’s sloppy defense, the ball quickly returned in front of goal and it was Eustaquio who targeted the far corner from the right at the end of the drive. Butez knew immediately: it was bingo again.

The dream becomes a nightmare again: Antwerp is overwhelmed by Porto after the break and is left with zero open

Foto: Isosport

So history repeated itself (very quickly). And recover from such a double blow: not easy. The Portuguese now walked through it very easily and quickly created opportunities. For a moment, Alderweireld seemed to give Antwerp hope again when he put his head against Balikwisha’s corner, but his header burst onto the crossbar. Then it was time to book. Pepê and Evenilson taught one-time football and the latter scored his second goal of the evening. Nothing to do about it. This time no one was really at fault. It was the law of the strongest.

Wijndal and Janssen tried from a distance with big bangs, but the tying goal was no longer possible. The 1-4 does. Evanilson completed his hat trick (in just 45 minutes) with a lob. For the Great Old, that goal was number twelve, after just three games. That’s not quite a negative record and that says enough about the value ratios in the group. Shakhtar can still be defeated, but the next (again very tough) task will be to survive in the Estadio do Dragão.

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