line-ups

FC Viktoria Plzeň

Wiegele – Doski, Spáčil, Souaré – Memić, Valenta, Červ, Višinský (60. Havel) – Ladra (82. Zeljković) – Kabongo (34. Adu), Vydra (C)

FC Porto

D. Costa (C) – A. Costa (56. Moura), Bednarek, Kiwior, M. Fernandes (71. A. Varela) – Froholdt, Rosario, Mora (56. Veiga) – W. Gomes (71. Gül), Aghehowa, Sainz (46. Pepê)

statistics

Goals: 6. Červ (Valenta) – 90. Gül (Kiwior)

Yellow cards: 14. Doski (PLZ), 72. Adu (PLZ) – 70. Bednarek (PRT), 74. Rosario (PRT), 85. Kiwior (PRT)

Red cards: 45+4. Vydra (PLZ)

Referees: Treimanis – Gudermanis, Spasennikovs

Shots on goal: 2:8

Shots off target: 6:7

Corners: 2:7

Offside: 1:0

Fouls: 11:12

Attendance: 11108

The players of Viktoria Plzeň drew 1–1 with Portuguese giants FC Porto on a freezing Thursday evening. Lukáš Červ gave the home side an early lead, but Viktoria had to see out the match a man down after Matěj Vydra was sent off. The visitors managed to equalise only in the closing minutes, and the duel thus ended in a share of the points.

Thursday’s freezing kick-off belonged to the visitors. A misunderstanding between Souaré and Wiegele resulted in a corner for Porto, but it did not lead to any serious threat. Shortly afterwards, Wiegele dealt with a long-range effort. In the 6th minute came a huge mistake by Porto. Višinský tried to recover with a sliding tackle, but the loose ball was picked up outside the box by Červ, who unleashed a beautiful strike to beat the goalkeeper. The home side took the lead. In the 12th minute, Doski switched play to Kabongo, who typically cut inside and went for a curler that narrowly missed the goal. Another misunderstanding was then unintentionally caused by Červ, who deflected the ball into the path of an opponent, but the Porto player failed to convert a clear chance. In the 23rd minute, another fine move followed. Kabongo brilliantly beat two Porto players, Vydra then switched play to Memić, whose curling effort went just wide. In the 34th minute, the home side were forced into a substitution. The injured Kabongo was replaced by Adu. He soon made his presence felt in attack – in the 41st minute, after a poor Porto build-up, Doski played the ball to Vydra, who laid it off to Adu, whose shot again narrowly missed the target. At the end of the half, following a Porto corner, Vydra threw himself into a shot but unfortunately handled the ball. After a VAR review, a penalty was awarded and Vydra was shown a red card. Porto failed to convert the ensuing penalty. That brought the first half to an end.

The second half began with a Porto onslaught, but Viktoria managed to neutralise all of the visitors’ attacking efforts. In the 60th minute, Milan Havel came on for the final thirty minutes in a Plzeň shirt, replacing Denis Višinský. The visitors created a promising chance in the 64th minute, but Lukáš Červ blocked the shot with a brave intervention. Viktoria occasionally threatened from set pieces, but clear chances were few and far between. In the 80th minute, Wiegele produced a superb save and significantly kept his team in the game while down to ten men. Porto thought they had scored, but the referee blew for handball and the goal was disallowed. Unfortunately, the equaliser came in the 89th minute. Deniz Gül collected a cross, turned, and fired past Wiegele. The battle with the Portuguese giants thus ended in a draw.

Photogallery