Porto juggernaut continues to crush allcomers

Academica 0-1 FC Porto

FC Porto achieved their seventh successive victory in the Bwin Liga, making it their best start to a campaign since the 1930s and their second best ever.

Captain Lucho Gonzalez converted a 28th-minute penalty after Ricardo Quaresma had been brought down in the box to extend the champions’ lead at the top of the table to seven points.

Porto coach Jesualdo Ferreira chose the same starting eleven that achieved Champions League victory against Besiktas in midweek. Unsurprisingly given their magnificent start to the season, the Dragons started off full of confidence.

Quaresma and Tarik both wasted good chances in the opening 20 minutes, but the pressure told shortly afterwards as N’Doye brought Quaresma crashing to the ground in the Academica box for a clear penalty.

Captain Lucho Gonzalez stepped up to take the spot kick and the Argentine made no mistake with a low shot into the corner of the net.

Bosingwa injury

Both teams were then forced to reorganise as Bosingwa for Porto and Ivanildo for the hosts had to be substituted because of injury. Luiz Felipe Scolari will be hoping Bosingwa is not badly hurt ahead of Portugal’s Euro 2008 qualifiers next week. The right-back has been in superb form this season, both for club and country.

Gonzalez was close to scoring his and Porto’s second at the start of the second half when a good interchange with compatriot Lisandro Lopez saw the midfielder burst into the box but goalkeeper Pedro Roma showed fantastic reactions to deflect his shot around the post.

The quality of the match descended from that point onwards, with Porto clearly tiring and Academica unable to seriously trouble a defence that has conceded just one goal in the league all season.

Brazilian striker Joeano showed good skill to fire two acrobatic efforts towards Helton, but both strikes missed the target.

Porto will go into the international break in buoyant mood, well placed both to defend their Portuguese title and to make progress in the Champions League.

Academica:
Pedro Roma, Orlando, Litos, Kaka, Pedro Costa, Pavlovic (Tiero, 73), N’Doye, Ivanildo (Helder Barbosa, 31), Miguel Pedro (Vouho, 85), Joeano, Lito

FC Porto:
Helton, Bosingwa (Cech, 33), Stepanov, Bruno Alves, Fucile, Paulo Assuncao, Lucho Gonzalez, Raul Meireles, Tarik (Leandro Lima, 54), Lisandro Lopez, Quaresma (Adriano, 77)
Yellow Cards: Stepanov (35)

Goals:
[0-1] Lucho Gonzalez, 28 (pen)