http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Radamel-Falcao-c30276 hat-trick helps Porto thrash Spartak Moscow 5-1 in UEFA Europa League
A hat-trick from Radamel Falcao inspired Porto to a 5-1 win over Spartak Moscow in the first leg of the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League at the Estadio do Dragao on Thursday, 7 April, 2011.
Porto made one change to their starting line-up from their 2-1 win over Benfica at the weekend as Maicon replaced Nicolas Otamendi in the heart of defence.
On the other hand, Valery Karpin also made one change to his team from their previous game as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Welliton-c36773 started upfront as the lone striker in a 4-5-1 formation.
The visitors made a lively start to the game and could have scored inside the first minute. Welliton made a surging run in the box and got himself in a great shooting position but instead he fired his shot into the side netting. The visitors applied the
early pressure and threatened the Porto goal a few times in the opening exchanges.
Porto’s first chance of the game came in the 17th minute. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Hulk-c16436 made a brilliant run in the box and his low drive from six yards was splendidly saved by Spartak goalkeeper Andriy Dykan.
The hosts opened the scoring in the 38th minute of the game. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Álvaro-Pereira-c5297 whipped a perfect cross inside the box and Falcao met it with a diving header, which found the back of the net to make it 1-0 for Porto.
The hosts were boosted by the opening goal and they looked much better after taking the lead.
The Dragons scored their second goal of the evening in the 65th minute of the game. Falcao played a lovely long ball to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Silvestre-Varela-c33505, who chested the ball down before rifling his shot into the bottom corner of the net to make it 2-0 for the
hosts.
Two became three after Joao Moutinho’s delivery from the corner kick was headed into the goal by Maicon.
The Russian side pulled one back two minutes later when http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Dmitri-Kombarov-c11402 made a lovely counter attacking run and chipped the ball over Helton’s head to make it 1-3 for the visitors.
Spartak looked to add at least one more goal to their tally to take a two away goal advantage to the second leg, but their hopes were shattered when the Portuguese side scored their fourth of the evening in the 84th minute. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Cristian-c9491 Rodriguez
picked out Falcao with a brilliant low cross and the Colombian tapped home from close range to make it 4-1.
Just before the full-time whistle, Porto scored their fifth goal to add salt to the wounds of the visitors. Fernando Belluschi’s free-kick was headed into the goal by Falcao to complete his hat-trick and guided his team to a commanding position to reach
the semi-finals of the competition.
The second leg of the fixture will be played at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow on 14 April, 2011.
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