Harpreet Seehra
Elite
Porto manager Vitor Pereira was perplexed at how his men fell to a shock 2-1 defeat to APOEL in their Champions League clash.
The Portuguese side looked good for at least a draw after Hulk converted an 89th minute penalty to level the scores at 1-1, but then slipped up by conceding an injury time goal to Gustavo Manduca.
Pereira was frustrated at his side crashing in this matter in Cyprus, and acknowledged that Porto would have to win both their remaining two group fixtures in order to try to qualify for the knockout stages.
"We created chances to score, managed to equalise and then it's inexplicable how such an experienced team as ours suffered the [second] goal," said Pereira to uefa.com.
"They [Porto players] should understand that at that moment a point could have left everything open. Now we have to win the next two matches.
"We lost almost inexplicably, but this is football," continued the 43-year-old. "We have to understand this, but we have to turn things up in the next game."
Porto will next face Olhanese in the Portuguese Liga on Saturday.
The Portuguese side looked good for at least a draw after Hulk converted an 89th minute penalty to level the scores at 1-1, but then slipped up by conceding an injury time goal to Gustavo Manduca.
Pereira was frustrated at his side crashing in this matter in Cyprus, and acknowledged that Porto would have to win both their remaining two group fixtures in order to try to qualify for the knockout stages.
"We created chances to score, managed to equalise and then it's inexplicable how such an experienced team as ours suffered the [second] goal," said Pereira to uefa.com.
"They [Porto players] should understand that at that moment a point could have left everything open. Now we have to win the next two matches.
"We lost almost inexplicably, but this is football," continued the 43-year-old. "We have to understand this, but we have to turn things up in the next game."
Porto will next face Olhanese in the Portuguese Liga on Saturday.
