Champions League - Porto too strong for Atletico

Eurosport - Wed, 30 Sep 22:25:00 2009

Porto moved up to second in the Group D table after a 2-0 Champions League win over struggling Atletico Madrid at the Estadio do Dragao.

FOOTBALL Atletico Madrid's Kun Aguero is challenged by Porto's Fucile during their Champions League match in Porto - 0

Goals from Falcao and Rolando in the last 15 minutes of the match were enough to settle a drab encounter in which the two sides cancelled each other out for large periods of the game.

Atletico transferred their poor domestic form in La Liga - where they are ensconced in the bottom three after failing to record a win - to the Champions League, while Porto took advantage of some questionable goalkeeping to ensure the victory.

Neither side was able to seriously threaten a goal during an opening 45 minutes that was tentative in the extreme.

Sergio Aguero looked the liveliest of a fairly sedentary bunch and it was he that was first to register a meaningful shot on goal.

The Atletico striker took advantage of a misunderstanding between Tomas Costa and Rolando in the Porto defence to pounce on a loose ball and hit a first time shot from the edge of the box that Helton needed to parry clear.

Hulk had seen a lot of the ball in the opening period, but too often the Porto forward attempted the spectacular to very little effect.

Porto did have the ball in the net after 43 minutes when Mariano Gonzalez raced onto a through ball from Falcao, but his tidy finish was ruled out for offside.

The same official flagged Raul Meireles offside in a carbon copy of the previous attack moments later, but in any event the winger struck a post with his effort.

Atletico were forced into a change when goalkeeper Roberto limped off with an injury midway through the first half, but his replacement David de Gea had little to do in a disappointing opening 45 minutes.

The visitors were denied what appeared to be a valid penalty claim in the opening moments of the second half when Aguero looked to have been shoved over in the area, but the referee waved away the claim.

Atletico should have opened the scoring from open play five minutes later when Juanito was guilty of missing a free header from close range.

De Gea, after having nothing to do in the opening period was starting to look shaky in the Atletico goal and it was from Hulk's shot, spilled by De Gea, that Porto opened the scoring after 75 minutes.

Hulk's effort came back off De Gea, and the Brazilian simply passed across the box to Falcao, whose neat flick beat the keeper and found the back of the net.

De Gea was beaten again seven minutes later and this time he could do little about it.

A towering header from Bruno Alves from a left wing corner thudded against De Gea's right hand post and with the keeper beaten Rolando slid in to tap home from close range

Sean Calvert / Eurosport

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  1. Half a Brain you really do have Half a brain dont you.­ maybe you should watch the game instead of reading what­ passes for a round up of the match. This guy probably­ copied and pasted this onto here from someone else

    From Carlos, on Thu 1 Oct 9:52AM
  2. Both teams are not worthy of a CL game. This would have­ been a good Cup Winners game

    From Half A Brain, on Thu 1 Oct 4:29AM
  3. atletico sucks come on porto

    From Jibin, on Wed 30 Sep 6:12PM
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