Porto cruise to victory as relegation looms for Chaves
GD Chaves 0-3 FC Porto
FC Porto have bounced back from last week’s disappointment versus Sporting with a comfortable 3-0 victory away to relegation-threatened Chaves, this Saturday night.
The Blue & Whites commanded the fixture with two first-half goals from Francisco Conceição and Evanilson against ten man Chaves, without the red-carded Júnior Pius since the 28th minute.
A 73rd minute penalty from Mehdi Taremi sealed a routine win against 17th-placed Chaves, leaving the hosts five points from escaping the drop zone while Porto put the pressure on Sporting de Braga in the battle for third place.
The two key changes for Porto came down the left flank for their journey to the Estádio Municipal, with both João Mendes and Mehdi Taremi deputising for Brazilian duo Wendell and Galeno.
Chaves were in search of their first win over Porto since 1989 and under bizarre circumstances, the Dragons shotstopper Diogo Costa almost left the hosts poised for a shock result after a skewed pass of his almost ended up in his own net, three minutes in.
The episode didn’t exactly serve to wake up an uninspired Porto side who, as late as the 27th minute, conjured up some danger and eventually found themselves ahead following a Conceição free-kick, making its way past Rodrigo Moura.
Chaves capitulated with a second yellow card awarded to Júnior Pius just a minute after the opener, leaving Chaves a man down with over an hour of football left to play.
A second goal was in the works after Taremi went close in the 37th minute, just moments before Evanilson was denied one-on-one by Moura’s fingertip save. The Brazilian proved inevitable, however, latching onto a cute flick from Taremi inside the box to fire deep into the bottom corner on the brink of half time, making it 2-0.
Coming into the second period, the two sides exchanged dangerous headers each as Héctor Hernández and Pepê battled for the next goal in the encounter.
The honours fell to Taremi, supposedly now Inter bound, as the Iranian contract rebel landed a killer blow to Chaves’ hopes of staying up with goal number three in the 72nd minute.
Three Porto goals and three Porto points would be how it’d end in Chaves, leaving the hosts five points behind Portimonense with two games to go, whereas the Dragons increase their lead over 4th-placed Braga, at least momentarily, by the same margins.
By Patrick Ribeiro
Chaves XI: Rodrigo Moura - Júnior Pius, Ygor Nogueira, Vasco Fernandes, Habib Sylla - Dario Essugo, Hélder Morim, Kelechi Nwakali - Rúben Ribeiro, João Correia, Héctor Hernández
FC Porto XI: Diogo Costa - João Mendes, Otávio, Zé Pedro, Martim Fernandes - Nico González, Alan Varela - Mehdi Taremi, Pepê, Francisco Conceição - Evanilson