Tottenham Hotspur kickstart the Champions League round of 16 with a trip to the San Siro to face AC Milan in the first leg of their double-header later this evening.
The Serie A champions have enjoyed their time in the sun but that now appears to be over, with players struggling for form and confidence as the Rossoneri have won just one of their last eight outings across all competitions – that being a 1-0 win over Torino at the weekend.
Meanwhile, Spurs have also struggled lately and come into this tie on the back of an embarrassing 4-1 defeat to Leicester City in the Premier League, so Antonio Conte has plenty to ponder ahead of kickoff.
One player facing the axe is surely recent debutant Pedro Porro.
How did Pedro Porro’s debut for Spurs go?
The 23-year-old’s first bow for the club couldn’t have gone much worse. He was part of the defence to conceded four times against the Foxes.
Having cost the club around £44m in January (£5m loan fee with a £39m obligation), both Conte and the fanbase will want to see a lot more from the Spaniard in the coming weeks.
Porro lasted 75 minutes before he was hooked by the Italian, having registered a 6.4 rating on Sofascore – the fourth-worst of the 11 to start.
He endured a torrid time up against Harvey Barnes, not only being sold a dummy by the Leicester winger – who would go onto score in the game – but he also looked ‘shaky‘ defensively – as described by football.london’s Alasdair Gold – and couldn’t muster up anything in the attack, with no shots or key passes.
Will Pedro Porro start against AC Milan?
Whilst AC Milan’s form is pretty poor, they cannot be discounted and Conte may look to lean on the recent form of Emerson Royal instead. It was perhaps even a surprise to see him dropped last time out, given he pulled off a “defensive masterclass” against Manchester City only a few games ago.
Porro, however, was given a rather scathing verdict by former Lilywhites boss Tim Sherwood at the weekend.
“I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt because it’s his debut but Pedro Porro is so bad it’s unbelievable,” he said on Sky Sports News’ Soccer Saturday show (via talkSPORT). “His positioning is disgusting, Barnes and Maddison are destroying him down the left-hand side.”
AC Milan’s left-winger and primary threat in Rafael Leao remains their second-best performer in the league this season, whilst he also has three goal contributions from six outings in the UCL, via WhoScored, so he could certainly cause Porro some more nightmares if he starts today.
Therefore, it’s likely that we see the former Sporting CP lightweight ruthlessly ditched from the starting XI when Tottenham face the Italian giants later this evening, with the Brazilian likely to get the nod instead, given the evidence above.
AND in other news, Spurs keeping tabs on “clinical” 26 y/o “lion”, he’d be Conte’s dream Kane alternative…