Sir Alex Ferguson spoke to the press ahead of Champions League week, sharing his thoughts on all things Porto.Manchester United are hosts to Porto this coming Tuesday, in a Champions League tie that stirs up memories in the knighted gaffer's mind. It was five years ago that Sir Alex Ferguson first faced-off with the Special One, Jose Mourinho's Portuguese side emerging the eventual victors of the Champions League that season.
"We were robbed," claimed Sir Alex, referring to both legs of United's last 16 clash with Porto all those years ago.
"Absolute robbery."
Still haunted by the memories of Paul Scholes' disallowed goal amongst a catalogue of other incidents that the gaffer feels harshly done by, Fergie has made sure that his homework is well and truly done this time, in order to prevent another shock defeat at the hands of the Portuguese champions.
"We’ve done the work on Porto," said Ferguson.
"I watched them on holiday and took all the DVDs away and watched the last six games they played."
Wary of the threat that Porto's attack poses, especially on the counter, Ferguson paid homage to Lisandro Lopez and his Brazilian strike partner Givanildo Vieira de Souza, famously nicknamed 'Hulk'.
"Big, powerful lad," the Red Devils' gaffer said of Hulk.
"He’s quick, with a good left foot. I’m surprised he’s not in the Brazil squad."
"The boy Lisandro is a finisher, a real striker," added Ferguson.
"And Porto have a lot of Argentinians. [Tevez] will obviously give me information."
In spite of the years gone by, and having studied up well on United's Portuguese equivalents, the bad taste still remains in Fergie's mouth, and he is determined not to have history repeat itself.
"I’m very mindful of the last time we met them. It just shows you football can be that way.
"That night sticks in the mind because Scholes’ goal was clearly a goal and the most ridiculous decision was when Cristiano Ronaldo was brought down going through, the linesman flagged for a foul and the referee went against it.
"They got a free-kick for it and scored a goal. It will be a difficult tie."
Having vented his frustrations of the past, Sir Alex looked beyond the current leg, attesting that Barcelona are, in his opinion, likely to pose the biggest threat, but that the strength inherent in Premier League teams may well lead to another all-English final.
"The threat as I see it is Barcelona," he said.
"They’re playing well enough to cause anybody problems. We’ve avoided them in the draw and have to be pleased about that.
"Because of the competitive nature of our Premier League I think an English team will win the Champions League again this year and it could be another all-English final. There could be three English teams in the semis again, that’s how strong we are."
Stephen Crawford, Goal.com
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