According to reports, Manchester United had a scout in the stands as FC Porto defeated Arsenal in the Champions League last-16 first-leg on Wednesday night.
Now, Portuguese publication Record does not go any further than that, providing no further information about the reason for the Red Devils’ trip to the Estadio do Dragao. But there is one name on the Porto team-sheet that will be familiar to Manchester United supporters.
Diogo Costa, after all, spent much of last year being linked with a to Old Trafford before Erik ten Hag opted to reunite with Andre Onana instead.
And his stellar display against The Gunners goes some way to explaining why Costa so high on United’s wishlist when the club opted to move on from the long-serving but technically deficient David de Gea.
Who knows? Had his release clause not been £20 million more than Inter Milan wanted for Onana, perhaps he would be standing between the sticks for United these days.
Diogo Costa shows why Manchester United wanted him
Now, describing Costa’s display as ‘stellar’ may seem a little odd when you consider that Arsenal did not muster a single shot on target on the night.
But Ten Hag, like most modern-day head coaches, tends to demand more from his number one than cat-like reflexes. United, above all, wanted a goalkeeper who could build the play from the back, and Costa is one of Europe’s best in that department.
Calm, assured and a brilliant reader of the game, Costa was the catalyst for a number of Porto attacks with his pinpoint, piercing passes into the wide areas.
Porto boss Sergio Conceicao was keen to point out before the game that plans were in place to limit Arsenal’s well-publicised set-piece presence too. And Costa ensured that a team who had scored no fewer than 17 goals from dead-ball situations in the Premier League this season could not rely on a familiar threat in Iberia, commanding his penalty area brilliantly with a number of nerve-easing claims.
Porto stun Arsenal in Portugal
Costa was labelled ‘world-class’ by the legendary Iker Casillas last year. Porto icon Vitor Baia went one step further, describing him as ‘the best in the world’. The likes of Alisson Becker and Marc-Andre Ter Stegen may have something to say about that, of course, though a more fitting description is maybe ‘the most complete goalkeeper in the world’.
For all of Onana’s obvious talents, there remains big concerns over his ability to deal with set-pieces – arguably United’s Achilles heel – and his shot-stopping prowess, even if the former Inter Milan man has made some big improvements in that regard recently.
Costa, during Porto’s Champions League campaign, has shown that he is not only a master of distribution but a specialist in every area.
from United In Focus https://ift.tt/blJEFkx