Milan, 23 Feb (ONA) — Inter secured a narrow 1-0 victory over Porto in their Champions League (CL) round of 16 first leg at San Siro.
It was a very tight contest with both teams having good chances, but after a red card for Otavio, Romelu Lukaku grabbed the late winner off of the bench for the Nerazzurri, the Spanish MARCA newspaper reported.
The first big chance of the game came when Marco Grujic’s low shot in the 36th minute was parried away by Andre Onana onto the head of Wenderson Galeno whose header was wide.
Inter were applying the majority of the pressure, but the visitors certainly still posed a threat when they got on the ball.
The match then reached boiling point as Porto tried to play on quickly following a VAR check for an Inter penalty.
The Nerazzurri were incensed as Otavio attempted to score when the ball was supposed to be handed back to Inter’s goalkeeper.
The final action of the half saw a Federico Dimarco free-kick to the near post get flicked on by Alessandro Bastoni, but Diogo Costa saved superbly from point-blank range.
The second half began with good efforts from Nicolo Barella and Taremi, but Porto were convinced they had scored when Mateus Uribe and Taremi had multiple efforts at Onana who somehow stood firm.
Much like the first half, Inter were the side applying the most pressure and another great chance came when Romelu Lukaku flashed the ball across the face of the goal, but Martinez could not quite reach it.
With 12 minutes to play, Porto were reduced to 10 players. Otavio was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Hakan Calhanoglu and suddenly the Portuguese side were only looking to get out with a 0-0 draw.
The breakthrough finally came for Inter with five minutes of the 90 left to play, thanks to Lukaku. His first effort with his head hit the post, but he reacted quickly to smash the rebound into the back of the net.
Source: Oman News Agency