Portuguese Abroad midweek round-up: Neto opens Wolves account; Semedo is surprise Olympiakos goal hero; Dyego Sousa catches the eye in China; Rui Vítoria advances in Asian Champions League

With the play-off positions for the Europa League and Champions League decided this week and FC Porto still reeling from their surprise elimination, PortuGOAL takes a look at the vast array of Portuguese talent which represented no fewer than fifteen clubs across the continent outside their homeland.

Meanwhile, the Asian contingent were in action both in the Chinese Super League, where Seleção international Dyego Sousa bagged a brace, and the Asian Champions League, in which there were contrasting fortunes for Portuguese bosses Rui Vítoria and Rui Faria.

Nuno Espírito Santo’s Wolverhampton Wanderers breezed through their Europa League tie with Armenian side Pyunik. Two 4-0 wins saw Nuno’s men record an 8-0 aggregate win and there was heavy Portuguese involvement in both legs of the tie, beginning with Rúben Neves rounding off the scoring in the first meeting from the penalty spot.

The spotlight turned to the younger element of Nuno’s group during the second leg, with teenager Pedro Neto marking his debut with a goal as well as an assist and Rúben Vinagre and Diogo Jota also finding the net. Neto, who arrived from Lazio alongside Bruno Jordão earlier this month, enjoyed a lively start to the game before opening the scoring on 54 minutes from close range after good work from fellow new signing Patrick Crutrone.

Neto’s goal opened the floodgates and within four minutes the 19-year-old had turned provider, crossing for Morgan Gibbs-White to double the home side’s advantage. The third came through Vinagre arriving at the back post to convert his second of Wolves’ European campaign, before Jota replaced Neto and capped the evening with a majestic overhead kick following a one-two with strike partner Raul Jimenez.

Former Braga forward Neto spoke after the game, telling reporters of the emotions from his first appearance for Wolves. “To score and make an assist in my first game was incredible, especially in front of these incredible fans. I enjoyed playing with the team in my first game because we played a good game. The second-half for me was better and now we are focused already on the game of Monday.

“I’ve settled in well, but my teammates are players that we can play easily with because they’re great players that make me learn with them and help me a lot.”

The tests will certainly get tougher for Wolves before the end of the month, not least due to unhelpful fixture scheduling. Nuno’s men host Manchester United on Monday evening in the Premier League, before travelling to Italy to play Serie A side Torino just three days later in the first leg of a difficult Europa League play-off tie.

 

Europa League round-up: Cardoso’s AEK ease into last stage

Also into the play-offs are Greek side AEK Athens, led by Miguel Cardoso, who found their way past Romanians Universitatea Craiova 3-1 on aggregate. The hard work was done in the first leg as AEK won 2-0 away from home and held their opponents to a 1-1 draw in the Greek capital, with Paulinho, Hélder Lopes, Chico Geraldes, André Simões, David Simão and Nélson Oliveira all involved in the action.

Cardoso’s men will meet Trabzonspor in the play-off, after the Turkish outfit overcame Sparta Prague of Czech Republic 4-3 on aggregate with veteran Portuguese João Pereira playing both legs in defence. “Trabzonspor have a strong team, it will be two very difficult matches,” Cardoso said. “In my opinion the chances of qualification are 50/50. We must play at our best for the entire match.”

Vitória Guimarães’ play-off opponents Steaua Bucharest booked their place with a dramatic late winner against Mlada Boleslav in Czech Republic. The first leg ended goalless and the return looked to be heading the same way until a 91st-minute winner from substitute Ionu Pantiru, who had replaced Portuguese Thierry Moutinho.

Boleslav were the not the only Czech club to suffer late heartbreak on the night, with Viktoria Plzen going down on away goals to Belgians Antwerp (2-2 agg) in extra time. The visitors from Belgium had former Benfica defender Buta and ex-Porto forward Ivo Rodrigues in their side, playing under the guidance of title-winning former Sporting boss Laszlo Boloni. The Romanian chief is preparing his team for a tricky tie with Dutch side AZ in the play-offs.

The Netherlands are also represented by PSV in the next round following their narrow 1-0 aggregate win over Haugesund. Bruma played in both legs for PSV, who set up a meeting with Apollon of Cyprus in the next round. Apollon had ex-Naval midfielder João Pedro in the side as they overcame Austria Vienna with impressive victories in both legs, winning 2-1 in Vienna and 3-1 at home.

Also winning both legs of their tie were Germany’s Frankfurt, who reached the semi-finals of the competition last season. The Bundesliga club were paired with FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein and Portuguese striker Gonçalo Paciência got his name on the scoresheet during a 5-0 victory in the first leg last week, and was a substitute as Frankfurt sealed a 6-0 aggregate progression by securing a 1-0 win at home to book a date with Strasbourg of Ligue 1.

There was less to smile about for another former Porto man, with Tiago Rodrigues and his CSKA Sofia side suffering elimination at the hands of Zoyra in Ukraine. Rodrigues is a key member of the Bulgarian side from midfield, and was joined in the line-up by compatriots Janio Bikel and Nuno Tomás as CSKA suffered an early red card before losing 1-0 in Ukraine, meaning Zoyra progressed 2-1 on aggregate.

Maccabi Tel-Aviv are also out and Portuguese duo Geraldes, formerly of Sporting, and Jair Amador played in their 2-1 loss to Suduva in Lithuania, which was a repeat of the scoreline from the first leg. Meanwhile, Portuguese trio Luís Rocha, André Martins and Cafú took their places for Legia Warsaw as the Polish side won 2-0 at Atromitos in Greece after a goalless draw in the home leg. Legia will play Scottish giants Rangers in the play-off.

Finally, while Wolves dispatched of Armenian side Pyunik, there is still hope of a Europa League group phase spot for the champions of one of Europe’s smallest leagues. Ararat-Armenia overcame Georgian side Saburtalo 3-2 on aggregate after a surprise 2-0 away win in the second leg, setting up a play-off against F91 Dudelange of Luxembourg. Former Penafiel and Famalicão defender Ângelo, 26, arrived at the Armenians during the summer and made his debut in this week’s unexpected win.

 

Champions League: Abel’s PAOK penalised by Ajax; Semedo prolific as Martins’ Olympiakos ease into playoff

Greece’s top two experienced contrasting fortunes in their Champions League ties this week, with the luck of the draw proving a harsh decider. Champions PAOK, led by Abel Ferreira, were handed the arduous task of battling last season’s semi-finalists and Dutch champions Ajax, while Pedro Martins and Olympiakos met Turkey’s Istanbul Basaksehir.

PAOK, who hired Abel this summer to replace title-winning boss Razvan Lucescu, gave a strong account of themselves against Ajax before succumbing to a 5-4 aggregate defeat. Abel’s team fell behind early in the first leg in front of their own fans, but were 2-1 up at half time before the Eredivisie side equalised to take a 2-2 draw back to Amsterdam.

Few gave PAOK much chance of causing an upset in the Dutch capital, but the visitors struck first at the Johan Cruyff arena and in the end a 3-2 defeat meant Abel and his team were one goal shy of progress to the next round. Having seen the home side awarded three penalties on the night – two of which were converted – former Braga boss Abel was understandably bitter about the loss.

“I don’t think that the opponents caused us a lot of problems,” said Abel. “The difference was the fact Ajax had three penalties. I don’t want to waste my time talking about the referee. Our job is to try hard both in matches and in training. I am sure that our fans are proud of their team, and I cannot use my energy thinking about the referees. I want to make it clear that two big teams played against each other today.

“The only thing which counts is the result. We lose together, but this is just the beginning of a very long season. I am pleased with how my players performed. Unfortunately, there were other factors which shaped the result. Ajax have enough quality to win matches on their own without any help.”

 

Semedo the goal hero

Olympiakos are into the play-offs where they will meet Porto’s conquerors Krasnodar. Pedro Martins saw his side win both legs of their tie with Turkish runners-up Istanbul Basaksehir without conceding a goal. Olympiakos won 1-0 away from home and then saw off the Istanbul threat with a 2-0 victory in Piraeus.

Portuguese trio José Sá, Rúben Semedo and Daniel Podence all started both games for Martins’ side and new recruit Semedo used the return leg to score his second goal for the club. Former Sporting defender Semedo scored in the previous round against Viktoria Plzen and converted a loose ball in the six-yard box for a 55th-minute opener against Istanbul.

“Yes we can say that (goalkeeper) José Sá was one of our most important players, but we were the right winners,” Martins said. “We were superior in both games. Defending and attacking is important if you want to win matches. We played smart, we faced our opponent very cleverly. We were playing with against a quality opponent.  We handled the game very well, we are the right winners and the qualification is justly fair.

“We are in a phase where matches are important to us and difficult. The team is very well prepared and so we can go to autopilot. All we had to do was concentrate. You saw what happened in Porto - Krasnodar. Porto were one of the most important teams in the Champions League. But they did not manage to repeat what they did in Russia. 

“We concentrated on this game and tried to show our strength on the pitch. We wanted to be 100% focused. That's what I said to the players. They have to do what it takes. We may not have had an excellent attacking game, but we are happy with the result.”

Romanian champions CFR Cluj booked their place in the Champions League play-offs with a sensational result away at Scottish giants Celtic. The first leg in Romania ended 1-1, leaving Cluj as underdogs heading to Celtic Park, but with experienced defender Camora and ex-Feireinse midfielder Luís Aurélio in the team, the visitors shocked their opponents with two late goals (80’ and 97’) to advance and set up a tie with Czechs Slavia Prague.

 

Dyego Sousa brace in China; Vítoria progresses in ACL; Luís Martins makes MLS bow

Portugal international Dyego Sousa scored his first goals for Chinese side Shenzhen on Wednesday with a brace in their 4-0 win over Guangzhou R&F. The 29-year-old moved to the Chinese Super League in a €15m move from Braga in July and made his debut against Beijing Renhe earlier this month.

Sousa won and converted a penalty just before half time, then later nodded in a corner to round off the scoring. Elsewhere on a full round of midweek action in China, Vítor Pereira’s champions Shanghai SIPG closed the gap on leaders Guangzhou Evergrande to six points with a crushing 5-1 win over Tianjin Teda.

The last eight of the Asian Champions League was decided this week, with Portuguese coaches vying for a place in the quarter finals. Rui Vítoria and Al Nassr of Saudi Arabia are into the quarters after coming from behind to beat UAE’s Al Wahda 3-2 away from home to progress 4-3 on aggregate, but there was disappointment for Rui Faria and Al Duhail who were knocked out by fellow Qataris Al Sadd 4-2 on aggregate.

In the United States, Portuguese defender Luís Martins made his debut in MLS for Sporting Kansas City in their defeat to Orlando City, following his recent move from Chaves. Nani played the full ninety minutes for 1-0 winners Orlando, but the Euro 2016 winner has not scored for his team in over two months.

By Sean Gillen