FC Porto 2-0 Maccabi Tel Aviv
First-half goals from Vincent Aboubakar and Yacine Brahimi gave Porto a comfortable 2-0 victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv at the Estádio do Dragão tonight.
With Dynamo Kiev and Chelsea playing out a goalless draw in Ukraine in the other game in the section, the Dragons go top of Group G and look well set to make the knockout stage, quite possibly as group winners.
A satisfactory night all-round for the hosts was completed by the fact Rúben Neves made history by becoming the youngest ever player to captain his team in a Champions League game at 18 years, 7 months and 7 days. Neves duly showed why he has earned such status, putting in his usual calm and assured performance way beyond what one could reasonably expect from a player of his age.
The hosts never truly got out of second gear, but truth be told they didn't have to against inoffensive opposition (Casillas had one save to make all night) whose defence creaked every time Porto increased the intensity and speed of their attacking play.
The result was never in doubt once Porto made the breakthrough. In the 37th minute, Cameroonian striker Aboubakar, who had come close to finding the net on several occasions, made good connection with an excellent Layún cross and his diving header was too powerful for Rajkovic to keep out.
One-nil soon became two-nil as Aboubakar did well to send Brahimi clean through. The Algerian looked suspiciously offside but the flag stayed down and the winger calmly slotted into the net to double Porto's lead.
The Israeli side were a little more adventurous in the second half, but lacked a cutting edge, star man Zahavi well marshalled by the Porto defence. At the other end, Martins Indi, Maxi Pereira and Tello all missed good chances to add to Porto's goal tally, while a well-struck free kick by Zahavi brought a sharp diving save out of Casillas.
Freakish maturity
Goalscorers Brahimi and Aboubakar along with marauding right-back Maxi all put in good shifts for Porto, but once again it was that man Rúben Neves who was Porto's star performer, another almost freakishly mature display sure to add to his burgeoning reputation.
"The less we talk about Rúben the better for him and for the other players," said coach Julen Lopetegui when asked about his young prodigy in the post-match press conference. Not much chance of that.
Juventus, Real Madrid and Liverpool have all been linked with a move for him and Neves will inevitably add to Porto's list of massive transfer windfalls sometime in the future. The hope for fans of Porto and Portuguese football is that the move abroad may be averted for some time yet.
For Neves himself, showing the same maturity off the pitch as on it, his only future worries concern Porto's next game.
"It's very special being part of this club and its history. Any player who comes through the ranks dreams of being captain one day," he said in the post-match interview.
"But the most important thing is the victory and the team. I don't want to individualise. We all deserve congratulations because we work all week for this. We're taking it one game at a time. Now we're thinking about the Braga match."
by Tom Kundert
FC Porto: Casillas, Maxi Pereira, Martins Indi, Marcano, Layún, Rúben Neves, André André, Imbula (Danilo, 54'), Corona (Tello, 54'), Aboubakar, Brahimi (Herrera, 84')
Maccabi: Rajkovic, Tibi, Ben Harush, Ben Haim I (Itzhaki, 84'), Carlos Farcia, Alberman, Zahavi, Miha (Vermouth, 73'), Mitrovic (Avi Rikan, 56'), Peretz, Ben Haim II
Goals:
[1-0] Aboubakar, 37'
[2-0] Brahimi, 41'
