Portimonense 0-3 FC Porto
FC Porto have fuelled their preparations for next week’s Champions League clash away to Arsenal with a key 3-0 victory away to Portimonense, this Friday, for the Primeira Liga.
The Dragons followed up their eye-popping 5-0 triumph over Benfica with another dominant display, helped on by an early goal from Nico González.
Galeno and Pepê added greater comfort to a scoreline that sees Porto now trail Benfica by just three points, before the latter faces against Estoril on Sunday night.
Despite the distractions, Sérgio Conceição was in no mood to switch up the XI, going for the same line-up that was able to decimate Benfica at the Estádio do Dragão, last Sunday.
The game quickly fell into Porto’s hands after the visitors were able in pen in Portimonense further upfield, forcing crucial errors that eventually led to Nico finding the bottom corner in the 7th minute.
No less than a minute later, Porto came agonisingly close to doubling their lead with a cute dink from Pepê, beating the keeper before clipping the top of the bar.
Portimonense’s shot-stopper Kosuke Nakamura played his part with a key save from Nico, keeping the score-line damage at a minimum going into the interval.
The hosts would become just one of many sides unable to halt Galeno’s route to goal in the second half as the Brazilian finally made it 2-0 for Porto on the hour-mark with a curling effort into the far corner.
Porto landed a killer blow with 11 minutes of normal time left to play, executed by Pepê with all the composure in the world inside the box to cook up a 3-0 victory in Portimão.
By Patrick Ribeiro
Portimonense XI: Kosuke - Gonçalo Costa, Filipe Relvas, Alemão, Igor Formiga, Moustapha Seck - Lucas Ventura, Carlinhos, Dener - Sylvester Jasper, Hélio Varela
FC Porto XI: Diogo Costa - Wendell, Otávio, Pepe, João Mário - Alan Varela, Nico González - Galeno, Pepê, Francisco Conceição - Evanilson
