Porto versus Villarreal – Second half review: Europa League (Part 1)
Both the teams fielded the same players for the second half that started the game.
Despite conceding a late goal in the first half against Villarreal, Porto pushed onwards at the start of the second half. The home side didn’t waste any time as they carved open the visiting team’s defense within the first few minutes of the second 45 minutes.
In the 48th minute, Radamel Falcao was sent clean through on goal thanks to Joao Moutinho’s pass. The speedy striker nut-megged Diego Lopez inside Villarreal’s box and the away team’s goalkeeper brought down the Porto striker.
As a result, the referee pointed towards the spot. Falcao stepped up to take the penalty kick himself after winning it for Porto and the Colombian striker made no mistake with his spot kick as Lopez dove the wrong way.
Falcao’s first goal brought the score line to 1-1 at Estadio Do Dragão.
In the 52nd minute, Borja Valero threatened to put his team back in front as he found himself in space inside the Porto penalty area but the Spanish midfielder’s shot was cleared by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Helton-c16018.
The loose ball then fell to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Portugal-c2984 evaporated in thin air.
In the 55th minute, Porto embarked on another attack. This time Falcao failed to make contact with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Álvaro-c5280 Pereira’s cross from the left hand side as the Yellow Submariners were let off the hook despite their shoddy defending.
In the 57th minute, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Borja-Valero-c7889 slid in on Pereira but the referee decided to let the midfielder off without another booking as he had already seen his first yellow card in the dying stages of the first half.
In the 61st minute, Porto was fired into the lead thanks to some brilliant offensive play by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Freddy-c14144 Guarin. Andres-Villas Boas’s team controlled the match in the second half.
This was evident by Guarin’s goal as the midfielder’s first shot was expertly saved by Diego Lopez but the rebound was netted by Porto’s midfielder as the score line reached 2-1 in favour of the home side at Estadio do Dragão.
In the 63rd minute, the scorer of Porto’s second goal of the night, Guarin, played in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Radamel-Falcao-c30276 inside the Villarreal penalty area. This time the skilful striker was wayward with his finish as Villarreal started to resemble like a rocking
ship in a middle of a Portuguese hurricane.
Porto’s game-play in the second half was simply inspiring as the Spanish outfit found it hard to keep up with the pace of the match as a whole.
Tags: