FC Porto beat Oliveirense 4-3 and reach the semi-finals | OneFootball

The newly crowned European champions remain calm and confident. They did not need a third game and went to Oliveirense’s home to secure a place in the semi-finals with a 3-4 win, following last Saturday’s clear 7-1 triumph at the Dragão Arena.

Hélder Nunes’ absence was felt more on Porto’s side than Lucas Martínez’s was for the home team, in a balanced match with a very intense start. Just before the second minute, João Souto opened the scoring, but shortly afterwards he ended up hurting his team by being shown a double blue card, leaving them shorthanded for four minutes. Far too long, and the Dragons made the most of it to turn the score around, first through Carlo Di Benedetto and then Gonçalo Alves. The comeback did not stop there: the French forward also made it 1-3 and forced Oliveirense to raise the tempo, tighten their man-marking and push for a recovery. From the second rebound of a penalty, João Souto pulled one back in the 14th minute and, a minute later, restored parity.

FC Porto came out very strong in the second half and almost completely dominated the opening five minutes, with Bernardo Mendes keeping the score level and giving confidence to his team, who struck the frame of Xavi Malián’s goal in the 42nd minute. Even so, the real blow came with Gonçalo Alves’ goal, which made it 3-4. The hosts tried to take the game, at the very least, into extra time, sacrificed their goalkeeper in the final minute and a half, but to no avail, as Porto resisted the pressure effectively.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.