This battle of matchday two losers seeking redemption started energetically, but PSV edged the opening half-hour. A Champions League winner with Bayern Munich in 2020, veteran winger Ivan Perisic headed narrowly wide of the left post in only the seventh minute, and an unmarked Mauro Junior wasn’t far off the target when trying his luck from the edge of the box.
That said, Guus Til’s challenge on Oskar Pietuszewski risked punishment as the two men straddled the 18-yard box’s whitewash, though the referee waved play on.
Porto began to look a bit more like the home side at the midway point of the first half, and an inventive but ultimately fruitless indirect free kick saw Gabri Veiga fire well wide as half-time loomed. But by far the best chance of the opening act fell the way of Filip Kostic three minutes before the interval, when he latched onto a ball down the left flank and burst through to pull the trigger, but frustratingly miscued under some last-ditch pressure from Alberto Costa.
With Porto having seen all five of their Champions League goals conceded arrive after half-time – as had all of PSV’s previous five goals shipped in any competition – the deadlock’s minutes seemed numbered as the teams restarted.
And after close calls at both ends, with Esmir Bajraktarevic hitting the post, Til justified that belief when a sequence of passes inside the Porto box culminated in him tapping in at the far post for his third Champions League goal.
But Porto weren’t beaten yet, and after a triple change from the home bench, only some miraculous, well-improvised defending stopped the Dragons from equalising in near-comical fashion.
A poor pass out from Matej Kovar was intercepted by Hwang In-Beom, who thundered down the left and squared for an unmarked Andre Silva, who was denied at point-blank range by the PSV stopper. But the ordeal wasn’t over, as the ball fell to an onrushing Victor Froholdt, who saw his rocket of a shot blocked on the line by Lutsharel Geertruida.
Barely two minutes later, a ball over the top from Diogo Costa put Silva through, and he lobbed Kovar, only for Sergino Dest to clear the goalbound ball away.
PSV learned their lesson and kept it tight in the closing minutes – though not without a near-miss in injury time from Pepe – to see out a precious win that has propelled them into the healthier realms of mid-table in the fledgling league phase. Meanwhile, Porto lie outside the qualification zone as a consequence of tonight’s reverse, and their first point of the campaign remains elusive.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Lutsharel Geertruida (PSV Eindhoven)
