Imperious Porto march into Portuguese Cup final

Vitoria Setubal 0-3 FC Porto

FC Porto made light work of Vitoria Setubal in the semi-final of the Portuguese Cup with a 3-0 away victory. The three time reigning Portuguese champions easily dispatched the Sadinos to book their spot at Jamor.

A Jorginho own goal and a brace by Lucho Gonzalez were enough to bring the Carlsberg Cup winners’ superb invincible run in cup competition this season crashing to an end.

It was the second time the two teams met in four days after the Dragons had got the better of Setubal with a 2-1 victory in the Liga on Saturday. But the line-ups were completely different for this semi-final as Jesulado Ferreira brought Bosingwa, Bruno Alves, Raul Meireles and Pedro Emanuel back into the line-up for FC Porto, while Carlos Carvalhal selected Claudio Pitbull, Ricardo Chaves and Bruno Gama to beef up the attack.

There was a great atmosphere at the Estadio do Bonfim with the home crowd in full voice urging their team on, while around 4000 Porto supporters were also present to cheer on their side.

An open match started at a fast pace with neither team afraid to seek out the first goal. Much to the chagrin of the partisan crowd, Porto got on the scoresheet first, in the 37th minute, as some bad luck fell upon Jorginho when the Setubal midfielder inadvertently knocked a Lisandro effort into his own net to give the visitors the lead.

Porto pour forward

Porto almost snatched another goal late in the half as Quaresma released Lisandro down the left flank. The Liga’s top scorer found Sektioui at the far post and the Moroccan laid off the ball to the onrushing Lucho Gonzalez, who fired it first time straight at Eduardo, with Lisandro’s shot from the rebound blocked by Ricardo Chaves.

Sektioui had a wonderful opportunity just before the half-time whistle, but the forward was stymied by Eduardo as he tried to dribble his way past the Portuguese goalkeeper.

The second half began in controversial fashion as Setubal coach Carlos Carvalhal was ordered from the bench after exchanging heated words with referee Pedro Proenca. The loss of their gaffer seemed to unsettle the hosts and they suffered a second goal in the 51st minute. Sektioui crossed for Lucho to bundle the ball into the net to put Porto two up.

The closest Setubal came to scoring all game occurred five minutes later as Claudio Pitbull struck his free kick well, forcing Lisandro to clear at the near post and from the ensuing rebound, Jorginho saw his effort go agonizingly wide from close range.

The rout was completed in the 60th minute when Lucho scored his second of the game as the Porto skipper was set up by a short Raul Meireles pass and tucked the ball past Eduardo from the edge of the box.

FC Porto will now wait for the winner of the other semi-final between Sporting and Benfica tonight, and on this form whoever the opposition the Portuguese champions will be very confident they can lift the cup for a 14th time in their history.

Vitoria Setubal:
Eduardo, Janicio, Auri, Robson, Jorginho, Elias, Sandro, Ricardo Chaves (Filipe, 58), Leandro (Severino, 58), Claudio Pitbull, Bruno Gama (Paulinho 73)
Yellow Cards: Sandro (21), Jorginho (36), Elias (67)

FC Porto:
Nuno, Bosingwa, Pedro Emanuel, Bruno Alves, Fucile, Lucho Gonzalez, Paulo Assuncao (Joao Paulo, 82), Raul Meireles, Sektioui (Farias, 74), Lisandro, Quaresma (Mariano Gonzalez, 79)
Yellow Cards: Paulo Assuncao (8), Quaresma (49), Pedro Emanuel (90)

Goals:
[0-1] Jorginho, 37 (o.g.)
[0-2] Lucho Gonzalez, 51
[0-3] Lucho Gonzalez, 60