The first 45 minutes in the derby at Porto cost two precious points to FC Porto. Returning to Estádio do Dragão after two ties in Braga, the national champions went to the break losing 2-0 in the home match against Boavista. In the second-half, the blue and whites tied the match (2-2), missed a penalty, and scored a third goal after that. The play was disallowed, however, costing an importing victory for the Dragons. After the match, Pepe admitted the blue and white players are the ones “to blame” for the result: “We can’t play a first-half this bad”. “When you represent a club as big as FC Porto, you have no excuses”, the captain summed up.

Bad start led to a bad ending
“We, the players, are the ones to blame. We can’t have a first-half as bad as we did. The coach warned us to their counter-attacks, one of their weapons. We did pay attention in the first-half, and we paid for that by losing points at home. We are representing the club and we need to do more. We couldn’t play like that in the first-half. We were better in the second, with more effort. We managed to tie the match, we could have scored the third, but that’s football. We have to look ahead, fight, think of what we did, and understand that we didn’t do well in the first-half.”

Wearing the FC Porto shirt forces you to do more and better
“When you play for a great club as is FC Porto, there are no excuses. We have to do what the coach tells us. In the first-half, we weren’t worthy of wearing this shirt. We did almost nothing as a team. We wanted to do more individually, and that costed us.”

Fight until the end to honour the blue and white
“It’s hard to explain. We are a team, we are aware of what happens in matches before the Champions League, we were facing a team fighting to get points. Historically, this is a hard match, with both teams committing fully to win. In the first-half, we didn’t match their intensity, we didn’t do what the coach asked and we paid for that. We conceded two goals in two counter-attacks. We know where we failed, so we are going to discuss that so it doesn’t happen again. There is still a lot to play for, anything is possible. We have to fight hard, as there are still many matches and points to win. The team will fight until the end, that’s what the club demands of us, to fight until the end to honour this shirt.”