FC Porto vs Internazionale – Football Match Report – March 14, 2023

Inter Milan reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time in more than a decade after withstanding a late pressure surge at Porto to escape with a 0-0 draw they won 1-0 on aggregate on Tuesday.

It was a disappointing night for home fans at the packed Dragao stadium as the Portuguese champions struggled to come back from a narrow first-leg deficit in Italy.

A disciplined Inter side appeared content to hold on to their lead and faced no serious threat until injury time.

Then Ivan Marcano’s attempt on the goal-line was blocked by Denzel Dumfries and Mehdi Taremi and Marko Grujic’s headers hit the post and crossbar respectively as Porto finally came to life.

Defender Pepe was then sent off for a second yellow card and Inter met city rivals AC Milan in the quarter-finals, who were in the last eight for the first time since 2006.

With Napoli playing a 2-0 lead deserved in Germany in Wednesday’s second leg at home to Eintracht Frankfurt, Italy could also have three teams in the Champions League quarter for the first time since 2006.

“We played an excellent game, the group stayed compact and played a great game. Excellent first half. In the last part of the game we all suffered together – credit to this group,” Inter coach Simone Inzaghi told Mediaset.

“Luck counts relatively in football. We deserved our progress in the two-legged team. Now we will go into the quarter-finals with a lot of self-confidence.”

After a hard-fought first-leg win against a Porto side who traveled to Italy with an ultra-defensive game plan, Inzaghi took a cautious approach that paid off as his players maintained the lead with a solid performance.

They waited for their hosts to show their hand, but Porto never really got going until it was too late.

It was late, when coach Sergio Conceicao put Toni Martinez and Danny Namaso ahead for the three-pointer, Porto threw everything at Inter, which almost worked in added time when they were thwarted by the woodwork.