Porto 2-1 Shakhtar Donetsk: Hulk and Kleber see off Ukrainians

Five minutes in, the home side were awarded a penalty when James Rodriguez was brought down in the box following a clumsy challenge from Yaroslav Rakitskiy. Hulk stepped up looking to open the scoring but unfortunately for the Brazilian attacker his effort rebounded off the post.

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The spectators didn’t have to wait long for the first goal, though, as in the 12th minute Shakhtar opened the scoring through Brazilian forward Luiz Adriano.

It was a gift, Willian’s long range effort being stopped by Helton, but the Porto keeper could not get a grip on the ball, leaving the striker the opportunity to nip in and put away the rebound with a simple tap-in.

Porto began looking more lively and responded well to the early setback. In the 28th minute, they got the goal they were searching for with a spectacular effort from star man Hulk. The Brazilian ace fired in a left-footed thunderbolt of a free-kick from 40 yards, following a hand-ball from Jadson.

The situation became worse for the Ukrainian champions just before half-time, when they were reduced to 10 men after Rakitskiy was a given a straight red for his dangerous lunge on Joao Moutinho.

The second half started, and it wasn’t long before Porto had taken the lead. After 51 minutes Kleber grabbed Porto’s second of the night, following a great run and cross from James Rodriguez that left the Brazilian forward with simple finish.

Porto were now dominating the game and looking to increase their lead. Oleksandr Rybka had to be alert to stop two drives from Rodriguez, before the Colombian struck the bar with a curling free-kick with 10 minutes to go.

Porto held on for the win, and now travel to Russia to face Zenit St Petersburg on the back of an impressive result. Shakhtar will be looking to regain some pride at home against APOEL.