derlei double delights porto published: thursday 20 march 2003, 22.30cet
panathinaikos 0-2 porto aet (agg: 1-2) porto win in extra time thanks to brazilian striker derlei.
an extra-time goal from brazilian striker derlei, his second of the night, sent fc porto into the semi-finals of the uefa cup after josé mourinho's side beat panathinaikos fc 2-0 at the apostolos nikolaidis stadium, going through 2-1 on aggregate.
extra-time winner derlei's first-half strike had left the tie hanging in the balance and sent the game into extra time. with both sides tiring, space opened up, and derlei scored his second to effectively seal the game, muscling off a challenge before finishing cleverly past antonios nikopolidis in the 103rd minute. the visitors now had two away goals and panathinaikos would have had to score twice to go through.
bright start porto had the better of the first half despite the hosts' bright start. panathinaikos winger giorgios karagounis, especially, harassed the visiting defence with his vibrant running. aside from two penalty appeals - one from emmanuel olisadebe, the other from nikos lyberopoulos - sergio markarian's side looked a little subdued, doubtless missing injured playmaker angelos basinas. "basinas's injury gave us a lot of problems because he is an all-round player and with his presence we gain a lot," said markarian.
derlei opener porto looked threatening and, after just 15 minutes, took the lead on the night and levelled the tie. a break down the left culminated in hélder postiga laying off the ball to derlei on the edge of the area. the brazilian striker whipped in a low curler that beat nikopolidis before going in off the near post.
deco effort six minutes later, deco tried his luck with a right-footed effort from a similar position, but it bounced just wide of the far post. hélder postiga and derlei had half-chances to put mourinho's side in control but fluffed their lines.
bad misses panathinaikos almost scored ten minutes before half-time when lyberopoulos did well to cushion a long pass on his chest, then span and volleyed straight over. he would miss an almost identical chance in the second half. derlei himself was guilty of a bad miss on 75 minutes, slicing what seemed an easy chance wide on the break.
porto panic joonas kolkka had three half-chances as he repeatedly cut inside to shoot, but the game inevitably drifted into extra time. panathinaikos almost scored on 94 minutes, when a giorgios karagounis free-kick from the right caused chaos in the porto box. kolkka and lyberpoulos could have scored but porto somehow scrambled clear. then derlei struck and the game was won.
mourinho delight this was panathinaikos's first european defeat in their apostolos nikolaidis stadium, and a delighted mourinho said his players "gave their all", adding: "i'm really satisfied with their attitude for the full 120 minutes of the match. we proved that we are in a very good physical condition. the key thing was to get control in midfield and we did that. i'm very, very glad because we made history - we are the first to win in this stadium where no one has won, not even real madrid [cf]."
markarian philosophical markarian was philosophical in defeat. "i want to congratulate porto and to wish them the best of luck for the next round. when we started the game we were a little bit nervous and made some mistakes when clearing our lines - and from such a mistake came their first goal."
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