It was the story of three 1-0 results for Portugal’s participants in the Champions League this week.
Benfica and Porto were far from their best but got the win they needed in home matches against Dynamo Kiev and Club Brugge respectively.
Both clubs move into second place in their respective groups, and have the chance to seal qualification for the knockout stages in their next matches, away at Besiktas and Copenhagen respectively.
Despite an improved performance, Sporting lost against Borussia Dortmund in Germany, with an early Adrian Ramos header proving the winner.
On Tuesday night 51,641 spectators in attendance at the Estádio da Luz saw Benfica take the lead on the stroke of half time through a Salvio penalty. In the second half Gonçalo Guedes almost snapped the crossbar in two with a pile-driver from 25 yards, but the hosts found it difficult to carve out chances against a determined Dynamo side.
And the Ukrainians had the perfect opportunity to draw level when goalkeeper Ederson was adjudged to have brought down ex Benfica forward Derlis González. But the Brazilian dived to his right to save the spot kick and the Eagles held on for all three points.
Porto welcomed Club Brugge to the Estádio do Dragão with the Belgians still looking for their first point in Group G. Maxi Pereira returned to the Porto line-up in place of Miguel Layún.
It was a case of the result being far better than the performance for Nuno Espírito Santo’s side. Despite a patchy performance, victory was earned thanks to André Silva’s deflected header and the three points put the Dragons in a good position to make progress in the competition.
Sporting coach Jorge Jesus pulled a surprise with his starting line-up in Dortmund, picking a 5-man defence which transformed into three at the back when the Portuguese side attacked, with full-backs Schelotto and Zeegelaar extremely offensive, while Dutch striker Luc Castaignos got a rare start in place of Bas Dost.
Borussia took an early lead through a Ramos header, but Sporting did not drop their heads and were unlucky not to earn at least a point, with Gelson Martins putting in another excellent individual display. Nevertheless, the Lions have now won only one of their last six matches and the defeat on Wednesday all but ends their hopes of remaining in the Champions League beyond Christmas.
Elsewhere, it was a positive matchday for Ricardo Quaresma, who scored (from the penalty spot) in Besiktas’s 1-1 draw at home to Napoli, and also for Monaco’s Portuguese coach Leonardo Jardim. The French club are sitting pretty on top of Group E after a 3-0 home win over CSKA Moscow, with Bernardo Silva playing the 90 minutes.
By Tom Kundert
