Porto stun Bayern, Barça overwhelm PSG
Porto have one foot in the UEFA Champions League's semi-finals after their shock 3-1 win at home over Bayern Munich in Wednesday's quarter-final, first leg.
Porto carry a weighty advantage to Munich for Tuesday's return leg at the Allianz Arena while Bayern have a glimmer of hope after their away goal, but still need to score at least twice at home. The Portuguese will be without Real Madrid-bound defender Danilo, who is suspended after picking up a late yellow to add to his previous bookings.
Porto coach Julen Lopetegui got one over his ex-Barcelona team-mate Pep Guardiola with Porto poised for a first semi-final appearance since 2004 when they won the Champions League under Jose Mourinho. Lopetegui had said Porto needed to be the 'perfect protagonists' against Guardiola's Bayern and they got off to a dream start as right winger Ricardo Quaresma scored twice in the opening ten minutes.
Bayern pulled one back through Thiago Alcantara with 28 minutes gone. But Porto captain Jackson Martinez, a surprise inclusion in the starting line-up after several weeks out with a groin injury, added their third on 65 minutes for his 27th goal of the season.
The hosts rattled the German giants at Porto's Estadio do Dragao and had the five-time European champions immediately on the back foot. In the opening exchanges, Martinez pressed Bayern midfielder Xabi Alonso into a rare mistake on the edge of the area and charged straight at Manuel Neuer.
The Germany goalkeeper brought the Porto skipper down trying to clear the danger and when Spanish referee Carlos Carballo pointed to the spot, Quaresma drilled home the third-minute penalty. Porto doubled their lead when Dante took too long on the ball, Quaresma pressed him into a mistake and sprinted clear before some clinical finishing put the hosts 2-0 up after just ten minutes. It was his fifth goal in three games for the 31-year-old Portugal veteran.
Bayern were without injured wingers Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery, plus midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, but still enjoyed 70 per cent possession and made it count by scoring from their first real chance. Centre-back Jerome Boateng put in a low cross from the right and Thiago stabbed home from close range to put the Bavarians back in the game. It was the 23-year-old's first European game for more than a year after back-to-back knee injuries and the first Champions League goal of his career.
It finished 2-1 at the break, but only Neuer's reflex save tipped a shot by Mexico midfielder Hector Herrera over the bar to deny Porto a third goal with nearly an hour gone. Their third came when Boateng mistimed his jump and Martinez accelerated onto the ball and went past Neuer to leave Bayern with it all to do if they want to reach a fourth consecutive Champions League semi-final.
Suarez at the double as Barcelona blow PSG away
Luis Suarez hit a brilliant second-half double as Barcelona appeared to end Paris Saint-Germain's Champions League dream for another year with a 3-1 quarter-final, first leg win at the Parc des Princes.
The visitors' all-star attack made their class count as Neymar coolly converted from a Lionel Messi assist in the 18th minute to put Luis Enrique's men in control, before Suarez produced two classy finishes in the final quarter of the game. PSG got one back eight minutes from time thanks to a deflected Gregory van der Wiel strike, but this was their first home defeat of the season and a first loss at home in Europe in 34 matches since 2006.
Next Tuesday's second leg at the Camp Nou now looks set to be a formality, even if PSG will have their talisman Zlatan Ibrahimovic and midfield maestro Marco Verratti back from suspension by then. The French champions have been eliminated on away goals at this stage of the competition in each of the last two seasons, including against Barça in 2013, but they will do well to even make it that close on this occasion.
And their evening was further marred by the loss of captain Thiago Silva, who hobbled off just after Neymar's opener with an apparent thigh problem. A dejected Silva walked straight off the field to have his left thigh bandaged up, not even waiting until his fellow-Brazilian David Luiz was ready to take his place.
The former Chelsea stopper was a surprise inclusion in the squad after travelling to Russia to undergo treatment on a hamstring injury that was expected to sideline him for around three more weeks. But even with Silva on the field, Paris looked uncomfortable against the Barcelona attack. The match was only 14 minutes old when Suarez found Messi on the edge of the area, the Argentinian controlling the ball and curling a wicked shot off the left post before it rebounded out to safety.
Messi, who has scored 45 goals in all competitions this season, provided a 25th assist soon after, sliding a pass into the path of Neymar, who finished across Salvatore Sirigu with the PSG defence missing after Adrien Rabiot lost possession on the right wing.