The history of the confrontation recorded Porto's superiority over AS Roma, when the away team was unbeaten in the last 3 confrontations, including 2 wins. However, in the first leg of the Champions League knockout round that took place in the early morning of February 13, everything changed completely. With home advantage, Roma entered the match confidently and quickly launched an attack, threatening Porto's goal. However, the away team from Portugal are not the ones who are easily bullied, they are willing to play fair play and even dominate the midfield.
Porto players proactively pressed to limit Roma's attacking ability. The most dangerous situation in the first half belonged to striker Edin Dzeko. The Bosnia striker handled well in the box before launching the decisive shot, unfortunately the post denied his goal.
Meanwhile, Porto also had many very loose attacks on both wings but the final shots did not hit the goal. The first 45 minutes ended without any goals scored.
After the break, Roma proactively put more pressure on the opponent's goal, but it was not until the 70th minute that the home team's fans had the opportunity to celebrate the goal. After many unsuccessful shots, striker Dzeko suddenly took on the role of an assist with a favorable pass for young talent Nicolo Zaniolo to launch a cross-angle shot to open the score.
Less than 6 minutes later, Zaniolo shined again to double the gap for Roma. Starting from a quick counter-attack at home, Dzeko accelerated and finished past the Porto goalkeeper but the ball hit the post and bounced out, the 19-year-old Italian star was there just in time to tap the ball into an empty net.
After conceding 2 goals quite quickly, Porto frantically attacked in the remaining time to find an away goal. In the 79th minute, Tiquinho Soares passed the ball smoothly, completely eliminating Roma's defense for Adrian Lopez to comfortably finish, shortening the score to 1-2.
In the remaining few minutes, Roma took the initiative to play slowly and steadily to preserve the fragile advantage. In the end, coach Francesco's team won 2-1. This score is beneficial for the "Foxes" before the second leg, while Porto still have a chance when they have 1 away goal as capital.
