LEICESTER CITY SUFFERED the biggest margin of defeat by an English side in Champions League history after Andre Silva’s double helped Porto secure second place in Group G with a resounding 5-0 victory at Estadio do Dragao.
Claudio Ranieri admitted Leicester face a scrap for top-flight survival following the 2-1 defeat at Sunderland last time out, but their sparkling, unbeaten form in Europe had represented a reprieve from what has been a dismal season so far.
However, the Premier League champions never looked likely to extend their unbeaten record on Wednesday, thanks to a comprehensive first-half display from Nuno Santo’s side.
Silva capitalised on weak defending to put the hosts ahead early on, with Jesus Corona’s exquisite volley and a deft finish from Yacine Brahimi doing further damage before half-time.
Leicester improved slightly after the interval, but Porto did not relent – and duly added more when Silva converted from the spot before Diogo Jota added further gloss to the scoreline.
The result marks the heaviest defeat by an English side in Europe since Everton’s 5-0 loss at Benfica in the 2009-10 Europa League, and represents another blow for struggling Leicester, who face Manchester City this weekend before they find out their Champions League fate in the last-16 draw on Monday.
With Leicester having already secured top spot in Group G, it was no surprise that Ranieri named a much-changed line-up given his side’s terrible Premier League form.
But despite handing several of Leicester’s fringe players chances to impress ahead of the clash with City, Ranieri saw his team go behind inside six minutes, when Champions League debutant Ben Hamer could only parry Brahimi’s stinging effort wide.
Corona whipped in the resulting corner, shambolic Leicester marking allowing Silva to head home unchallenged. Silva could have doubled his tally shortly after, but the 21-year-old failed to apply the finish after connecting with Alex Telles’ cross.
Porto did have their second after 26 minutes, though – Telles’ precise cross picking out Corona, who despatched a venomous, perfectly-executed volley into the top-right corner.
Santo’s side continued to dominate, and deservedly extended their lead further on the stroke of half-time as Brahimi – making just his third start across all competitions this term – flicked home from close range at the culmination of a sublime move.
Ranieri introduced Leonardo Ulloa and Marc Albrighton at half-time, and the latter almost turned provider immediately following the restart, but Shinji Okazaki was unable to turn in the winger’s cross.
Despite their renewed attacking vigour, Leicester remained hapless at the other end, Jota the next to try his luck with a low effort that flashed just wide.
Leicester were further behind just after the hour mark, Silva drilling home from the penalty spot after he had been brought down by Danny Drinkwater.
It got worse for Leicester – Drinkwater going off injured before, with 13 minutes remaining, Jota slotted home through Hamer’s legs as Porto secured progression in style.
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
“upset the natural flow of the game”. can’t agree with that. you have lads throwing themselves on the ground left, right and centre which is far more disruptive in my opinion, especially in the bigger knockout games when they’re a goal up. sure they had water breaks in some matches in the last World Cup which went by almost unnoticed. time for the video ref.
Also it should be easy enough to moderate the use of video techology. I.e limit the number of times it can be referred to in a game…. each coach can call for a video replay three times and no more!
About time but I would rather see it use for cheating and simulation
You can nearly tell by looking up that Barcaloni19 page on youtube that you would get 9/11 conspiracy clips in the suggested videos. Short memories, he seems to forget the second leg at Stamford Bridge only the year before.
All club have been stung over the years by bad decisions but when it’s costs a team a trophy/promotion or indeed regelation it can be hard to swallow .
If ever there was a club that benefited from extremely dubious refereeing, Barcelona is it.
The farce at Stamford Bridge
The Thiago Motta red card with Busquets peeking through his hands to see if he could stop rolling around yet
Van Persie’s second yellow for playing the ball after as the whistle was blown
And then from this tie, the Suarez non-red, the Iniesta non-red and the Torres sending off.
You lost all credibility when you said Torres was harshly sent off last week.
In that inter game the goal Barcelona got was actually offside so if they had video ref back then that goal wouldn’t have stood, and also the ridiculous motta red card would never have happened
They weren’t in the video so clearly didn’t happen.
3 for the manager is too many. Its been in hockey for a few years at the high level and only now is it really a very good system without issue of bias or unfair advantage. Currently, each team has one video refferral, which they keep if they are proven correct or in the case of “no decision possible”. When the team refers and they are mistaken, they lose the referral. Teams must refer immediately after the incident (within 3 seconds i think) and it has to be close to a goalscoring event (can’t be at midfield). It goes upstairs to a ref who avails of different camera replays. There are still instances when cameras don’t pick up the incident or it is unclear what happened although football games have so many cameras this might not be an issue. Also, there are still complaints to referees even after video referrals! In football there would be issues surrounding interpretation – handball/ball to hand for instance but these would simply have to be cleared up by rules committees. I think aswell that referees own referrals would be useful but in rugby these are taken too much in my opinion. The system works well, there is usually 3 or 4 refferals a game and they are swift and exciting. I think it would work. 6 a game would be hefty and would lead to a scenario whereby there would be a refferal by a winning defensive team over a free kick the last minute purely to waste time/stop momentum type of thing. This is not attractive to see.
Trust no one
Didn’t need last night to prove this. Just the last 30 years of diving, cheating, handballs etc etc etc