Porto defeated Nacional 1-0 at Estádio da Madeira in their first outing since Samu’s season ending knee injury.
All the early chances fell for the Dragons, Alan Varela’s shot deflected wide before Kaique collected efforts from Oskar Pietuszewski and Deniz Gül.
Pepê was heavily involved on the right wing, the Brazilian sending a shot wide before Nacional missed a glorious opportunity to take the lead in the 33rd minute.
Paulinho Bóia’s corner was met by Jesús Ramírez, the striker looking certain to score before heading straight at Diogo Costa who did enough to divert the ball over the bar.
It was the start of Nacional's best spell of the game but they couldn’t make it count.
Gabri Veiga replaced Rodrigo Mora in the 59th minute and made an impact with his first touch of the ball. He whipped a corner into the danger area where Jan Bednarek headed into the net.
Nacional huffed and puffed but were unable to test Costa for the remainder of the contest, Miguel Baeza volleying over the bar in added time.
Crucial Victory
It was an important victory for Francesco Farioli's side who were coming off a 1-1 draw against Sporting Clube de Portugal and 2-1 defeat at Casa Pia. The win took Porto seven points clear of Sporting and Benfica, the Lions with a game in hand.
Deniz Gül started up front following the season ending ACL injury to Samuseason ending ACL injury to Samu Aghehowa. Terem Moffi replaced the Turkish striker and it remains to be seen who will take Samu's minutes.
Zaidu Sanusi returned to the starting side since the 3-1 Taça da Liga quarter-final defeat to Vitória de Guimarães in early December. Oskar Pietuszewski made his first start for the Dragons at just 17 years and 8 months old.
Farioli highlighted his squad, saying: "We are where we are because of the strength of the squad. Everyone is ready to play, everyone is ready to help. This week was really complicated because of the injuries to Samu, Kiwior, and Martim.
"Samu's injury, in particular, is a big loss. It affects us a lot because we feel the pain we've been sharing these past few days. That's why it was important to rebuild the group in a situation where we also had the pressure of getting another important result."
The win came exactly a year after the death of former Porto president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa.
Porto now return to Estádio do Dragão where they should have few problems beating Rio Ave and Arouca. They then contest two crunch games in Lisboa, against Sporting in the Taça de Portugal semi-final first leg and Benfica in the Liga.
