Rodríguez says Porto are in for the long haul
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
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FC Porto goalscorer James Rodríguez believes the Portuguese champions "can go a long way" after making it two Group A wins in two against star-studded Paris Saint-Germain FC.
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The names change, but the results keep coming. FC Porto's bright young side showed their quality by defeating Paris Saint-Germain FC and James Rodríguez, scorer of the only goal late on, says the squad "can go a long way". Team-mate João Moutinho also emphasised the Portuguese champions' "ambition", while the visitors' Zlatan Ibrahimović conceded the 2004 UEFA Champions League winners had the edge in terms of experience.
James Rodríguez, Porto forward
[The goal] was beautiful. I've already scored some important goals and this was definitely among the most important. I'm very happy with my performance, but more so for the result we got as a team. PSG are a team full of good players, but we dominated them the whole game.
I think we're doing well [in the UEFA Champions League] and can go a long way; but we're taking it step by step. All games in the Champions League are difficult, but Porto always go out to win. I expect us to continue on the same path.
João Moutinho, Porto midfielder
The most important thing is the win, of course, and that we have managed two victories from two games. We always believed we could keep our identity and our own style of play [against PSG] and that's what we did. We knew they posed a great threat on the counterattack but we dealt with it. We showed our ambition by picking up the three points and we want to continue and secure first place [in the group].
Zlatan Ibrahimović, PSG forward
It was a 50-50 game. I had two good chances and they had some good chances too. We made more technical mistakes than we normally do and then in the last ten minutes they scored, so we dropped three points.
Porto are the favourites to win [the group] because they have more experience than us, but we were able to trouble them. I think we're learning every game. It's our first time in the Champions League for a long time and it's a different game compared to other [competitions]. I think [PSG keeper Salvatore] Sirigu had a fantastic game. If the team as a whole plays well we can go a long way.
