Europa League: Good night for Portuguese clubs

Europe might be about to control Portugal's finances, but the Portuguese soccer clubs in Europe are Kings - excellent results for FC Porto, SL Benfica and SC Braga make it probable that the semi-finals will be restricted to the Iberian Peninsula - Villarreal also made sure that Twente Enschede has its bags packed.

SL Benfica (Portugal) 4 PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands) 1

Benfica's goals came from Aimar (37), Salvio (45 and 52) and Saviola (90+4); PSV replied through Labyad (80)

FC Porto (Portugal) 5 FC Spartak Moskva (Russia) 1

A hat-trick by Falcao (37, 84, 90+2), and two more by Varela (65) and Maicon (70) gave FC Porto an unassailable advantage against FC Spartak Moskva, whose single goal was scored by Kombarov (71). Porto had 21 shots to Spartak's 6 and seven corners to three.

Dínamo Kiev (Ukraine) 1 SC Braga (Portugal) 1

Dínamo scored twice - Yarmolenko on 6' and Gusev in his own goal on 13', fixing the result in a balanced game which was excellent for a surprising campaign by SC Braga, ably managed by ex-FC Porto player Domingos Paciência.

Villarreal (Spain) 5 Twente Enschede (Netherlands) 1

A one-sided game in which the visitors were thrashed by a Villarreal side showing confidence and control: Marchena (23), Borja Valero (43) and Nilmar (45+1) gave the Spanish side a 3-0 advantage at the interval, coming back with two more from Rossi (55) and Nilmar's second on 81. Twente replied on 90+1 (Janko).

Aleksei Federov

Pravda.Ru