PORTO prepared for the second leg of their quarter-final against Manchester United with a comfortable 3-0 win over Amadora in the Portuguese Liga on Saturday.
Bruno Alves put Porto ahead after 29 minutes before a second-half double from Ernesto Farias secured the win.
Coach Jesualdo Ferreira started the match with regulars Hulk, Lisandro Lopez and Fernando on the bench, as Andres Madrid, Mariano, and Farias were handed rare starts in their place.
Porto are four points clear at the top of the league table and will have home advantage against United on Wednesday, when they will be attempting to qualify for the semi-finals after a 2-2 draw in the first leg.
VILLARREAL will be without Marcos Senna for Wednesday’s return meeting with Arsenal because of injury.
The Spanish international midfielder limped out of Saturday night’s 2-0 home defeat by Malaga in the 80th minute due to a hamstring problem, leaving Villarreal with 10 players as coach Manuel Pellegrini had already made his three substitutions of the game.
It is not yet known how long Senna will be out for but, according to Villarreal’s website, he will definitely miss the quarter-final second leg at the Emirates Stadium.
Senna scored the Spanish side’s goal as they drew the first leg with Arsenal 1-1 at El Madrigal last Tuesday.
BARCELONA defeated Primera Liga strugglers Recreativo de Huelva 2-0 at Camp Nou on Saturday to maintain their six-point lead over Real Madrid, who beat Real Valladolid 2-0 yesterday.
Josep Guardiola’s team quickly set about their opponents and were a goal to the good after a minute when Thierry Henry teed up Andres Iniesta to tap in.
Sylvinho deflected a goal-bound header from Andres Lamas wide after 20 minutes to ensure Barca remained in front and they doubled their lead midway through the second half when Nasief Morris diverted Iniesta’s pass into his own net.
Lionel Messi, scorer of two in the 4-0 defeat of Bayern Munich in midweek, had a late penalty saved.
BAYERN MUNICH coach Jurgen Klinsmann praised the spirit in the camp after his side bounced back from their Champions League humiliation with a 4-0 thrashing of Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.
Bayern had been humbled 4-0 by Barcelona in Wednesday’s first leg, with the annihilation coming hard on the heels of last weekend’s 5-1 Bundesliga thumping at the hands of Bundesliga leaders Wolfsburg.
“This was a first-class performance and a first-class reaction to the Barcelona debacle,” the under pressure coach admitted. “It hurt a lot and we had to make it up to our fans.” The German champions still face the arduous task of overturning Barcelona on Tuesday.
