Here they are made, there they are paid. This was the motto that led FC Porto this Wednesday to beat Club Brugge, in Belgium, 4-0 and win back the humiliating defeat suffered at Dragão in September. About two hours after the final whistle, the rematch also enabled Sérgio Conceição’s team to celebrate qualifying for the round of 16 of the Champions League, thanks to Atlético de Madrid’s 2-2 draw at home against Bayer Leverkusen, with the colchoneros failing a penalty at the last throw.
FC Porto’s victory deserves even more attention, as it was against the great sensation of Group B, who came to this match with only wins, no goals against and already guaranteed qualification for the next stage of the Champions League. Diogo Costa was worth making history, Galeno was the opener and Taremi made himself the man of the match with two goals and an assist.
The dragons began to circulate the ball with speed, throwing balls into the depths whenever possible, waiting for the speed of Galeno, Taremi and Evanilson to make the difference. And so they quickly took over the game, with several dangerous situations close to Mignolet’s goal, which saw Eustáquio and Taremi waste goals when they were alone in the area, not to mention a Uribe shot, after a corner, who went to the bank. The threats only materialized in the 33rd minute, when Otávio – he made his 250th game for the Dragons – launched Mehdi Taremi who, with only the goalkeeper in front, opened the score. Bruges conceded the first goal in the Champions League and eventually FC Porto’s dominance was finally translated into numbers, which lasted the entire first half.
Another credit to the whites and blues was that they defended very compactly, always with many people around, focusing on the goal of central Fábio Cardoso and David Carmo, who noticed Diogo Costa attentively (18 minutes) as he took the ball authentically from the head of the Spanish attacker Ferrán Jutglà, after a cross by Skov Olsen.
Diogo Costa makes history
But at the start of the second half, all the work of the first half could have been ruined. This is because David Carmo scored a foolish penalty on Mechele in the 47th minute, which the referee signaled after being warned by the VAR.
And then the super Diogo Costa came into action, who saved Vanaken’s penalty… only the referee ordered it to be repeated and it was Noa Lang who took the shot, but before another save from the FC Porto goalkeeper, who became the first to stop three penalties in one season in Champions League history. And the remarkable thing is that he succeeded in three games in a row: in the two games with Bayer Leverkusen and now with Bruges. In addition to the credit of maintaining the advantage in the marker, Diogo Costa was also decisive in breaking the reaction of the Belgian team, which saw the game suddenly turn against it.
This is because in the 57th minute, in a swift move led by Galeno, the ball fell to Evanilson who shot into the back of Mignolet’s goal. It was the Porto celebration in Belgium, which grew even bigger after three minutes as the scene repeated itself, with Galeno escaping and serving Taremi, who assisted Stephen Eustaquio for the third goal. And suddenly there was only one left to recover the defeat of the Dragon game. And in the 70th minute, Porto’s recipe was repeated, always with Galeno breaking on the left (much to defender Mechele’s dismay) and serving Otávio, who assisted in Taremi’s second goal, which he scored for the fourth time in this edition. of the Champions League.
The end of the match came with the Whites and Blues happy with the defeat, but the real celebration came after the mission was accomplished thanks to the Atlético de Madrid draw.
Source: DN
