Otávio opened the scoreboard, Copenhagen tied at the start of the second-half, and the Dragons were unable to win. FC Porto started the 21st participation in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, this Wednesday, with a 1-1 tie against Copenhagen. Otávio scored first, 13 minutes in, but the Danish team came back 52 minutes in, thanks to Cornelius. The Dragons – who could have made it to halftime with a bigger result, as there was a penalty to signal – kept attacking until the end, but weren’t able to score again, as they faced an opponent with quality, that remains undefeated this season (15 matches, nine victories, six ties). This isn’t how the Dragons wanted to celebrate the 200th match in the competition, but everything is still open in the group. The next match is against Leicester, away (September 27, 19h45), who are in the lead of Group G, after the 3-0 victory in Bruges. In comparison to the match on Saturday, against Vitória de Guimarães, Herrera and Corona were in the starting team this time, replacing André André and Depoitre; Felipe, Otávio and André Silva debuted in the group stage of the Champions League. The winger and the striker ended up building the first goal of the evening: Otávio stole the ball from Derlaney, André Silva immediately passed to the Brazilian player with his heel and the following shot was like a missile going for goal. It was the first goal for Otávio with the blue and white jersey, early in the first-half, which wasn’t easy for the Dragons. Copenhagen pressed on the midfield, won many lost balls and tried to send high balls to the attack; two of those plays had plenty of danger associated to them, as Santander headed the ball for Casillas to save, 11 minutes in, and Cornelius missed the target, also in a header (14m). The Danish team is tall on average and physically powerful, which often forced FC Porto to defend closer to the area. Still, until the break, the second goal could have been scored by the Dragons: Corona was tackled in the area by Johansson, 32 minutes in, and, 40m, the winger passed to André Silva, but the striker couldn’t reach the ball that would mean a goal, for sure. In the first real opportunity in the second-half, Copenhagen tied the match, in an odd play where Cornelius is on the far post, misses the shot, but then ends up scoring with a header. The team took a hard blow with the goal and took too long to recover. Depoitre went in on minute 62, to replace Corona, and, four minutes later, Greguš was sent-off as he was shown a second yellow card for a tackle on Otávio. Nuno Espírito Santo reacted by removing Herrera and sending in Brahimi – a debut this season, and the winger changed the match –; the Dragons were now playing with two strikers, Depoitre and André Silva. Diogo Jota was the last substation, going in with ten minutes to go, replacing Otávio, helping FC Porto apply pressure until the last second. Several plays could have led to a goal, but the tie remained. There was plenty of fight, but not so much for inspiration.