Porto coach Julen Lopetegui wants one more fantastic effort against Bayern Munich
Porto coach Julen Lopetegui knows his team needs to produce one more fantastic performance if they are going advance past Bayern Munich on Tuesday. Despite their 3-1 advantage from the first leg, the task ahead of Porto is a daunting one considering Bayern … Continue reading →

Porto coach Julen Lopetegui knows his team needs to produce one more fantastic performance if they are going advance past Bayern Munich on Tuesday.

Despite their 3-1 advantage from the first leg, the task ahead of Porto is a daunting one considering Bayern have won all four of their home matches in this season’s Champions League campaign, scoring 13 goals while conceding none.

The German champions go into Tuesday’s return leg knowing a 2-0 victory would be good enough to see them progress to the semi-finals of the competition.

However, Porto have been proving experts wrong since the early stages of the tournament after having to qualify via the Champions League play-off round.

They were one of only three teams to advance through the group stages undefeated and have yet to lose a match in the tournament to date.

Since stunning Bayern Munich in the first leg in Portugal, coach Jueln Lopetegui has become the latest hot name in management among television pundits and sports journalists. He is now rumored to be on the list of possible replacements for Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid and Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City.

However, the former Real Madrid and Barcelona goalkeeper says he is solely focused on the job at hand with Porto, and ensuring the Portuguese club reach the Champions League semi-final for the first time since 2003-04; the year they won the European cup under the guidance of Jose Mourinho.

Speaking ahead of his side’s match against Bayern, Lopetegui called for his team to produce one more fantastic performance against the German champions, a team he considers one of the best in the world.

“We are focused on the match,” the Porto coach said. “We need to put everything we have planned into practice.

“It will be a difficult task, but we will try to find simple answers. We like the idea of playing against Bayern – one of the best teams in the world.

“We can’t think about what could happen, we will just focus on the game tomorrow and try to give the answer on the pitch. We will try to create chances and play our game. We have to focus on our game.

“We need to produce a fantastic performance. We have earned the right to play in the quarter-finals – we have worked hard on this.

“All the matches are crucial [at this stage], we will try everything to succeed and go through to the semis. We are proud of what we have achieved in this campaign.

“We will work hard, impose our style on the game and try to score. There is no specific key to winning the tie. It is not about the details; it is all about the approach.”

Programming note: Bayern Munich vs. FC Porto will be shown LIVE on Tuesday at 2:45pm EST on FOX Sports 2 and FoxSoccer2Go.