On Tuesday, for the first time in more than a decade Inter Milan reached the Champions League quarterfinals after escaping with a 0-0 draw against Porto with an aggregate score of 1-0.
It was a nightmare for the fans at housefull Dragao stadium as the champions Porto tried to vain to wipe out the narrow deficit from the first leg in Italy. Ivan Marcano’s brilliant effort was bloacked on the goal-line by Denel Dumfries and headers from Mehdi Taremi and Marko Grujic hit the post and bar, respectively. With this draw, Inter Milan made in to quarterfinals after 2006 and joined their city rivals AC Milan in the quarterfinal.
“We played an excellent game, the group stayed compact and played a great match. Excellent first half. In the last part of the match we all suffered together — honour to this group”, Inter coach Simone Inzaghi said.
«In football, luck matters relatively. In the two-legged match we deserved to advance. Now we will play the quarterfinals with a lot of confidence. After earning a hard-fought win in the first leg against a Porto side who went to Italy with an ultra-defensive gameplan, Inzaghi took a careful approach that paid off as his players preserved the lead with a steadfast display.
They waited for their hosts to show their hand, but Porto never really hit their stride until it was too late. Not until late on, when coach Sergio Conceicao brought on Tony Martinez and Danny Namaso to make it three up front, did Porto throw everything at Inter in a move that almost worked in stoppage time when they were thwarted by the woodwork.