This Saturday, FC Porto beat Vizela (4-2), at Estádio do Dragão, for matchday 32 of the Portugal Bwin League. Evanilson (21m), Mehdi Taremi (28m and 87m) and Mbemba (57m) were the scorers for the blue and whites, who now have 85 points, nine more than Sporting, who have one less match played. FC Porto might actually become champions on Sunday if the club from Lisbon fail to beat Gil Vicente at Alvalade.

With the Porto Nation filling Estádio do Dragão on a late afternoon that reminded of summer times, the blue and white team started with the usual dominant attitude, but it wasn’t easy to break Vizela’s defensive organization. It is known that FC Porto is particularly strong in high pressure and that was exactly how they opened the scoreboard. Evanilson had faith and put the pressure on Pedro Silva, forcing the goalkeeper to make a mistake and lose the ball to the Brazilian forward, who shot into the back of the net keeping his cool (21m). In the lead, the Dragons grew even stronger, and it wouldn’t take long to increase the advantage.

Marko Grujic was tackled in the area, but the assistant referee saw a previous offside that didn’t actually exist, and that’s why the VAR called Manuel Mota to look at the footage. The referee had no doubts and signalled the penalty spot, with Mehdi Taremi making it count. The Iranian forward fooled Pedro Silva and scored the 2-0 with class (28m), but the team from Vizela would still show their resilience before the break: Alex Mendéz believed and beat Diogo Costa with a great shot from outside the area, making it 2-1 (36m). Halftime came and FC Porto was leading by the minimum advantage.

The start of the second-half was a hard blow for the Dragons, as Vizela made it 2-2 through Nuno Moreira in a play that had Diogo Costa being fooled by a unlucky deflection (49m). Despite the blow, FC Porto didn’t give up and went all out looking for the lead again, which would come from the right foot of the unlikely Mbemba: Pepê crossed perfectly to the heart of the area and the Congolese central defender was there to shoot without giving a chance to Pedro Silva (57m), who would later see Francisco Conceição barely miss the 4-2 (80m). Shortly after, the opposing goalkeeper saved Galeno and Matheus Uribe’s attempt at glory (85), but was powerless to prevent Mehdi Taremi’s second and the 4-2 (87m) that leaves FC Porto one point away from the 30th title of national champion in its history.