Malaga 2-0 Porto (2-1): Super sub Santa Cruz shines

Malaga continued their dream Champions League journey by beating Porto 2-0 at home and booking their place in the quarter-finals with a 2-1 aggregate scoreline.

Aerial battle in front of Malaga's goal

Score: Isco 43, Santa Cruz 77.
Red card: Defour 49

Malaga started the season with the departure of many key players. By mid-season they were banned from European Cup by UEFA for financial irregularities. Yet now Malaga find themselves in the round of 8 strongest teams in Europe.

Porto, the 2004 champions, started the game brightly before Isco, the man of the match, opened the scoring for Malaga with a superb finish two minutes before half-time. Porto's efforts to equalise were dealt a further blow when Steven Defour was sent off just four minutes into the second half for a tackle on Joaquin.

With the advantage of more players and the enthusiastic support of the home crowd, Malaga increased the pressure and brought on striker Roque Santa Cruz. It was the Paraguayan striker who scored the decisive goal with a header after Isco's corner kick. Porto focused all their efforts on attacking in search of an away goal and a ticket to the quarter-finals, but Malaga continued to show their steadfastness by keeping the score the same until the end of the match.

Isco said enthusiastically after the match: "We played very badly in the first leg but played very well in the second leg. This is something that few people thought of at the beginning of this season. The players in the team rarely experience this wonderful feeling and completely deserve it."

Line-up
Malaga: Willy, Jesus Gamez, Demichelis, Weligton, Antunes, Joaquin (Camacho 88), Toulalan, Iturra, Isco, Julio Baptista (Santa Cruz 73), Saviola (Piazon 79).

FC Porto: Helton, Danilo, Otamendi, Mangala, Alex Sandro (Atsu 70), Joao Moutinho (Rodriguez 46), Fernando, Gonzalez, Varela (Maicon 58), Martinez, Defour.

According to Bongdaplus - DT