Figo goes for gold

By Adrian Clarke

Portuguese international Luis Figo is back in his home country for Real Madrid CF's UEFA Champions League game against FC Porto - and he is determined to make it a happy return.

Good start
Having launched their bid for a tenth European Champion Clubs' Cup with a 4-2 win against Olympique de Marseille, Figo and his team-mates are expecting perhaps their toughest Group F test on Wednesday night, not least because of Porto coach José Mourinho.

Old friends
Figo was one of Mourinho's charges when the latter was Sir Bobby Robson's assistant at FC Barcelona, and he told uefa.com: "He knows Real Madrid well from his experience in Spain with Barcelona and knows how best to play against us, which could be a very dangerous thing."

Deco threat
With Porto missing Russian Dmitri Alenichev for the game, Figo has already identified the main threat to his side. "I think Deco is the biggest threat to us," he said. "He is a great finisher and uses his pace all the time to get in behind defenders, so we'll have to be very careful against him."

Disappointing result
Having been beaten 2-0 at Valencia CF in the Primera División at the weekend, in a game which also saw David Beckham pick up an ankle injury, Madrid coach Carlos Queiroz might have reason to feel nervous, but Figo was brimming with confidence as he looked ahead to the match.

Madrid heritage
"Here at Madrid we don't expect any team to defeat us and that is the case with this game too," he said. "Porto are maybe our toughest opponents in this group but we only have to worry about how we play. Without meaning any disrespect to them, they are a difficult step on the road to the title but I do not see them as a big threat to Madrid. If we play to our potential we should take all three points."

Perfect ten
Having bowed out of last season's Champions League with a defeat by Juventus FC in the semi-final, Figo and company are even more determined to take their tenth European Cup. The 30-year-old is well aware that reclaiming the title is their primary objective.

'Built to win'
"Our main target is to win the cup for the tenth time and we will fight as hard as we can to achieve it," he said. "We have a team that is built to win titles. I trust in the players here and I believe that we'll make our supporters happy at the end of this year."

New format
However, with the abolition of the second group stage, Figo also asserted that his side could ill afford to have off-days. "We will have good and bad days, but with this year's change in format we know that we can't afford bad matches later on in the tournament," he said. "If we have an off-day we'd rather have it now, because when the quarter-final, semi-final and final come around we'll have to be physically and psychologically perfect."

Attacking policy
In order to achieve that perfection, Figo admitted there may have to be sacrifices. "Our attacking philosophy has probably cost us goals in the past, but we have to make sure it doesn't happen again this season," he said. "It will be special to win the tenth European Cup and if we want to do it this year we must learn from mistakes of the past - and I think we will."