Two injured strikers to miss Porto clash

Andreas Cornelius and Federico Santander have both been ruled out of Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Porto.

Cornelius pulled his hamstring in the 2-1 win over AaB on Friday night and immediately came off the field.

And Santander has not recovered from a thigh injury picked up while on international duty with Paraguay.

“This of course makes a difference in terms of our offensive game, because we have less power over set pieces and less physicality in the box,” said manager Ståle Solbakken.

“Instead we will use some of our lighter players that allows us to play faster.

“But it's hard to say how it affects our chances (of winning). They are probably not increased, but we could also have had problems even with Santander and Corner on the pitch, for we face a really good Porto side.”

Cornelius was examined over the weekend and has been ruled out of action for the rest of the autumn term.

“The message was as expected and it is of course regrettable and unfortunately timed, because we have some exciting challenges ahead of us,” Cornelius told FCK.dk.

“There is nothing I can do about it, so now I want to use my energy to support the boys as well as I can for the rest of the autumn and then come back stronger during the winter break.”

As for Santander, the fresh injury comes after he had only just fully recovered from a fractured cheekbone that has plagued his start to the season.

Paraguay lost 4-1 at home to Peru on Friday 10 November, with Santander assisting Cristian Riveros with the opening goal before coming off on 38 minutes.

“This type of damage can take up to three weeks to get recover from,” said Copenhagen doctor Morten Boesen.

“But we have initiated an intensive rehabilitation programme for Santander.”

It was hoped Santander would be fit for the Porto game but Ståle ruled his striker out of the clash.

Porto were held to a 0-0 draw after extra time against Chaves in the Taça de Portugal on Friday - and lost the subsequent shoot-out 3-2.

But Ståle does not think the result will have any bearing on their performance this Tuesday.

“It’s still a very strong team with many good players, and we saw this recently when they played the top match against Benfica in the league,” he said.

“But we showed in the first leg down there that we can fight, and also in our other Champions League games we played up to our best, and we must also do that on Tuesday.

“I think we have to win both of the final games, if we are to continue to last-16. “It is also not impossible for us. We still have a strong organisation and a very solid defence, and then we compensate offensive power with quick feet.”