FC Porto left the City of Manchester Stadium with a 3-1 defeat in the opening matchday of Group C of the Champions League. The Dragons were ahead of the match 14 minutes in, thanks to a fantastic goal scored by Luis Díaz, but, after that, referee Andris Treimanis started an unreal streak of mistakes, always against FC Porto. Kun Agüero, Gündoğan and Ferrán Torres scored for the English team.

Used to the UEFA Champions League as few, FC Porto took to the pitch of the City of Manchester Stadium full of character, looking at the extremely wealthy Manchester City straight in the eye. Before the quarter hour mark, the national champions celebrated: in a magnificent individual play, Luis Díaz dribbled several opponents on the way to the area and shot for goal, giving Ederson no chances. The scoreboard was open in style (14m). However, the lead wouldn’t last, as Latvian referee Andris Treimanis and his team flagged a penalty in a play that started with a foul on Marchesín.

The Argentinian goalkeeper was stepped on by Gündoğan, and, after that, Pepe tackled Sterling in the area, with a penalty being given for that. Even though the footage clearly showed what Gündoğan did to Marchesín, the Dutch VAR Jochem Kamphuis disregarded it and didn’t even call Andris Treimanis to take a closer eye, a decision that cannot be explained. Indifferent to the terrible decision from the referee team, Kun Agüero tied the match, even if Marchesín was able to guess where the ball would go in, almost preventing his countryman from scoring (21m). Right after that, the high pressure from the blue and whites forced Manchester City to lose the ball in a dangerous area, but Matheus Uribe missed the target (22m).

Before the break, Marega found space in the area, but his cross didn’t connect and was cleared by the home defence in front of goal (43m). After that, it would appear that João Cancela tackled Pepe in the area, but Andris Treimanis disregarded it and the match reached the break tied 1-1. The second-half started with Marchesín preventing Gündoğan from scoring (49m), but it would be a different story on the second attempt. After a inexistent foul was flagged on Fábio Vieira, the German midfielder made it 2-1 in a direct free-kick that gave no chances to the blue and white Argentinian international goalkeeper, who still tried to get to the ball (65m).

Shortly after that, Ferrán Torres (73m) entered the area, dribbled Pepe and beat Marchesín with a good shot, increasing the home team’s lead to 3-1 (73m). The mission of the Dragons became even harder and the defeat was confirmed when Andris Treimanis, by far the worst man of the match, whistled for the end of the match.