Porto into knockout round
Two days, three victories, and a memorable Champions League matchday for Portuguese teams. FC Porto continued their superb form in this year's competition, completely dominating Athletic Bilbao tonight, winning 2-0 thanks to goals from Jackson Martínez and Yacine Brahimi to book their place in the knockout round with two group games still to go. The Dragons are two points clear at the top of Group H and well positioned to win the section.
Benfica scraped to a 1-0 win in a hard-fought match against Monaco at the Estádio da Luz yesterday, man-of-the-moment Talisca netting a late winner to put the Eagles back in contention. Jorge Jesus' men remain in last place in Group C but just one point separates the Portuguese champions, Zenit and Monaco with two matches remaining.
A terrific match in Lisbon tonight saw Sporting roar back from 1-0 down to race to a 4-2 victory over German outfit Schalke 04 (see the PortuGOAL twitter feed for blow-by-blow account of events at the Alvalade). Goals from Naby Sarr, Jefferson, Nani and Slimani gave Sporting a well-merited three points, and puts the Lions in with a chance of continuing in the competition beyond Christmas.
Tune in to the new PortuGOAL podcast, available tomorrow afternoon, which will discuss the Champions League situation and all the latest domestic football news in Portugal.
