How Swansea City boss masterminded Portsmouth's Fratton Park downfall
The Swansea City boss gives his insight into how his side came out worthy Championship winners under the Fratton Park lights last night.
Vitor Matos believes his side’s pressing intensity was central to taking down Pompey.
And the Swansea City boss feels the Welsh outfit were able to find the passes to pick apart John Mousinho’s side and negate their ‘long ball’ threat.
Matos: ‘Intensity, pressing and passes to get into right positions’
Matos was delighted with his dominant side, as they controlled the first half at Fratton Park on the way to a well-deserved 2-1 success.
The Portuguese head coach detailed his game plan, as Swansea negated the Blues’ threat out wide on the way to a two-goal lead at the break.
Matos had no doubt his side came out worthy winners..
Speaking to Swansea City’s YouTube channel, he said: 'We knew this would be a very tough game because of the intensity Portsmouth put in, the amount of long balls and crosses they put in on a narrow pitch.
'So we knew we needed to show concentration, which we did in the first half. We had very good intensity, our pressing was there, and we had control in the right moment and could find the passes that allowed us to get into the right positions.
'From that came the two situations for the goals. They were very good goals as well, I was really pleased for Gally and Josh to score.
'Of course, the control we had defensively was very important as well. The back four, the centre-halves, were unbelievable. Credit to them, they were able to control the space in behind, putting pressure and then controlling the space between the lines.
'We also had a big impact from the bench as that is what will make us stronger and make us more competitive. That’s what we needed.
'We knew it would be massive (pressing) in the first half if we could have control in the game, we needed to make sure not to open the spaces between the lines and control the spaces out wide because Portsmouth like to use those situations. We were able to do that.
‘It shows how we want to play because of the control we had in situations, the calmness in the final third. There was a lot of positives - we matched the performance with the points.’
Swansea City boss: ‘We defended box well’
After an insipid first-half display Pompey were improved after the break at Fratton Park, without creating the clearcut openings to turn the tide back in their favour.
Swansea were asked to do more to defend their box from a stream of crosses and balls in the penalty area.
That was something Matos was pleased to see his side do, given his view he doesn’t feels they aren’t necessarily gifted with powerful physical attributes.
He added: ‘We defended the box well and won aerial duals, which was massive for us.
'We’re not the tallest teams in the league, so we had to find ways to be consistent and control that. We did that really well.’