Porto secured an important victory against Santa Clara as they continued to put pressure on Benfica in the race for the league title.
Nigerian defender Zaidu Sanusi was left on the bench as Porto defeated Santa Clara 2-1 on the night. Goals from Mateus Uribe and Danny Namaso gave the home team the advantage with the away side only getting a consolation goal by Kyosuke Tagawa for their effort.
As it happened
Porto manager Sergio Conceicao fielded a strong eleven with Otavio in midfield and Toni Martinez leading in attack with the Nigerian Defender left to watch from the bench. Santa Clara on the other hand also selected their best eleven with Matheus Babi leading the attack in this game.
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The game started with lots of tackles flying in as four Santa Clara players got a yellow card in the space of 16 minutes. With the game reaching its 32nd minute, Ygor Nogueira, a Santa Clara defender held his opponent to prevent him from getting the ball and the referee blew his whistle for a foul and awarded a penalty to Porto. Mateus Uribe, Porto’s striker directed his penalty into the top left corner which beat Gabriel Batista.
Four minutes later Porto got another penalty but were unable to convert it with his shot going just wide of the left post.
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The second half started the same way they left off in the first half. Porto kept piling pressure on Santa Clara for the second goal and were rewarded in the 80th minute when substitute Danny Namaso was in the right place at the right time to get to the rebound inside the box and gleefully rifles the ball low inside the right post to make it 2-0.
Santa Clara also tried to fight their way back into the game but the goal came very late. In the 92nd minute, Kyosuke Tagawa beautifully controlled a strongly hit pass from Gabriel Silva inside the box and then cut inside to evade his marker and rifle the ball into the right side of the goal to make it 2-1 with the game coming to an end.
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Porto will travel to Pacos de Ferreira on Saturday as they continue their hunt for the league title and mount pressure on Benfica who are top of the table.