Qualification to jamor scheduled for the second leg

Playing in Guimarães, FC Porto (1-0) came out on top. On a night that had different criteria when showing yellow cards, with two plays that had the blue and white bench fuming with the decisions of the team headed by referee Nuno Almeida, the Dragons managed to gain an advantage that they will try to increase at Estádio do Dragão, on April 17 (Wednesday, 20h15).

In comparison to the team that started at Estoril, Sérgio Conceição sent in Cláudio Ramos, Jorge Sánchez and Gonçalo Borges from the start in Guimarães and the two men on the right wing were the most prominent in the first part, although for different reasons.

In the very first minute of a first half with no dangerous plays to highlight until near the end, Borevkovic stepped on Evanilson, leaving the forward with visible complaints in his right leg. 15 minutes in, Jorge Sánchez and Ricardo Mangas crashed into each other with their heads, forcing the game to be stopped for several minutes, with both medical teams doing what they could to stop massive bleeding on both players.

In the first minute of the long stoppage time, the blue and white bench jumped in protested in a play in which Pepe passed deep to Gonçalo Borges and the winger, faster than Ricardo Mangas, reached the ball first, but goalkeeper Bruno Varela tackled him in the area. Referee Nuno Almeida, after a brief analysis, signalled the match to continue.

On the next minute, Nico González got to a cross from Jorge Sánchez with a header that hit the top bar and, in the last moments of the first half, following a corner-kick for the home team, Evanilson led the ball with speed in a counterattack that continued with a cross from Wendell to the penalty zone, and Nico was again there to get it, but the shot was deflected by a defender to the far post. Opportunistic, Gonçalo Borges was there to try to push the ball into goal, but Bruno Varela blocked his way. The break came without any goal scored.

Unlike what happened in the first 45 minutes, the second half couldn't have started better for FC Porto, as the Dragons reached the lead in seven minutes. Nico González received on the left, near the edge of the area, saw Pepê free from his marker, and crossed with precision for the number 11 to head it in successfully (1-0).

Referee Nuno Almeida was again the protagonist for the wrong reason 71 minutes in, when he decided to show only a yellow card to Borevkovic in a play in which he deliberately handed the ball when he was the last defender and saw Evanilson beating him in speed going for goal. Not even the discussion with VAR André Narciso amended the decision.

84 minutes in, eight minutes after going in, Romário Baró came very close to increasing the blue and white lead on the scoreboard. The midfielder got the ball outside the area and shot with power, but Bruno Varela saved it into a corner-kick. The same happened in the first minute of stoppage time, when Iván Jaime, recently in from the bench, was very close to scoring. With that, the one goal lead remained until the final whistle (1-0).

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