Scorer: Lucho Gonzalez 44, Ricardo Quaresma 62

Halftime: 1-0; Attendance: 40,000


Goals by Lucho Gonzalez and Ricardo Quaresma gave Porto a 2-0 victory over Besiktas and a place in the Champions League last 16 on Tuesday.

Porto's Argentine forward Lisandro Lopez had an effort disallowed for offside after 13 minutes but his side's pressure paid off when they took a controversial lead through compatriot Gonzalez just before halftime.

Besiktas keeper Rustu Recber and his defenders stopped momentarily, expecting an offside decision for a pass into the area, and left the Argentine midfielder to steer the ball into an empty net.

Porto, who were Champions League winners in 2004 and needed only a draw to go through, made sure of a place in the knockout phase when fellow midfielder Quaresma burst clean through to rifle home their second goal in the 62nd minute.

Four minutes from time, Besiktas defender Ibrahim Toraman squandered a chance to score a consolation goal for the Turkish side when he headed wide from a corner.

Victory also meant Porto finished as Group A winners. They were joined in the last 16 by Liverpool, who won 4-0 at Olympique Marseille in the group's other game.

Porto coach Jesualdo Ferreira told a news conference: "In the first half, Besiktas played a defensive game and closed down the flanks. But we scored at an important moment.

"Besiktas did not create much danger, aside from corners and free kicks, while in the second half my team became more difficult to stop. We deserved the second goal and I think we could even have scored two more."

Besiktas coach Ertugrul Saglam said: "We wanted to win but didn't create the scoring opportunities. Congratulations to Porto, but I think we've shown Europe the quality of Turkish soccer."


Porto: 1-Helton; 12-Jose Bosingwa, 3-Pedro Emanuel, 2-Bruno Alves, 13-Fucile (5-Marek Cech 75); 6-Paulo Assuncao, 16-Raul Meireles, 8-Lucho Gonzalez (18-Mario Bolatti 81); 17-Tarik Sektioui (23-Helder Postiga 73), 7-Ricardo Quaresma; 9-Lisandro Lopez.

Besiktas: 1-Rustu Recber; 22-Ali Tandogan, 8-Baki Mercimek, 58-Ibrahim Toraman, 19-Ibrahim Uzulmez; 21-Serdar Ozkan, 18-Edouard Cisse, 7-Burak Yilmaz (55-Ibrahim Akin 45), 14-Rodrigo Tello (9-Federico Higuain 84), 10-Matias Delgado; 13-Bobo

Referee: Peter Frojdfeldt (Sweden)

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