It was difficult, but FC Porto beat Santa Clara (2-1), at Estádio do Dragão, for matchday 25 of the championship. Sérgio Oliveira (49m), from penalty, and Toni Martínez (90m+5), in the last play of the match, scored the goals for the blue and whites, who are second in the table, with 57 points, seven behind Sporting, who have yet to play in the matchday.

The first-half of this FC Porto-Santa Clara didn’t have significant plays, mostly due Santa Clara’s defensive organization, capable of denying space to move to the blue and whites. Sérgio Oliveira (14m) and Marega (25m) aimed for goal, but neither situation was enough to scare goalkeeper Marco Pereira. In spite of the blue and white superiority, it was no surprise that the tie came with 0-0 on the scoreboard.

The second-half couldn’t have started with more excitement: just two minutes in, Otávio found Mehdi Taremi in the area, and the Iranian forward was tackled by Marco Pereira in the area. Called to the penalty spot, Sérgio Oliveira short with power straight at the middle and gave the advantage to FC Porto (49m), but Santa Clara didn’t take long to react. After Diogo Leite tackled Lincoln in the area, Carlos Jr tied the match again from penalty (56m).

On the following play, Matheus Uribe passed to Mehdi Taremi, the the forward, in good position, shot outside the post (59m). FC Porto increased the pressure as the clock ticked towards the end, and came close to scoring with Fábio Vieira, but the shot from the youngster was deflected into a corner-kick (70m). When the tie seemed inevitable, Tecatito Corona dribbled part of the opposing defence on the left and passed to Toni Martínez, a perfect cross that ended in a header that gave the victory to FC Porto in the last play of the match (90m+5). In the end, this is what it means to be worthy of Porto. Believing and fighting until the end.