FC Porto will face Académico de Viseu, away, in the quarter-finals of the Portuguese Cup. The match against the team trained by Jorge Costa was decided this Wednesday night at Estádio do Dragão, as the last cup winners beat Arouca 4-0 in the round of 16 of the competition. Going in at half time, Toni Martínez scored a hat-trick and became the man of the match in which Sérgio Conceição surpassed José Maria Pedroto’s 215 wins and became the most victorious coach in the history of the club.

On his 300th ahead of the club that trained him as a player, the coach kept his promise to start with the same ten players sent in for the match at Jamor, with Cláudio Ramos in front of goal (instead of Diogo Costa). The goalkeeper was given a warning shot in the first minute, when the only noteworthy attempt from the opponent went just centimetres away from the post.

The blue and white response came 15 minutes in and had Taremi as the messenger. After a good pass from Veron, with whom he again formed a duo in the attack, the Iranian failed to make it count and the scoreboard remained unchanged. Veron was again involved in the next opportunity, this time not doing the best with a cross up from João Mário on the right.

The Dragons already deserved a goal that came 30 minutes in, when Taremi did a great pass to Galeno and the number 13 finished as expected (1-0). Before half time, there was still time for Uribe to jump above everyone else, and, with a header, force the goalkeeper to a good save.

Replaced by Toni Martínez, Veron didn’t return for the second half and saw an excellent play transformed into a goal by the Spanish forward, after the inevitable pass from Taremi (2-0). Two minutes later, another play from the right wing and another accurate shot from Toni Martínez: high pressure, fast ball recovery, João Mário crossed and the forward scored.

The blue and white pressure was tremendous and only the crossbar prevented Galeno from scoring the goal of the round. Soon after, the winger would be replaced, along with Matheus Uribe, by Eustaquio and Pepê. Fábio Cardoso was also replaced later on, with Pepe returning to the pitch after a long absence caused by two injuries, and Grujic hit the top bar as well in a good shot.

With ten minutes to go, Mehdi Taremi was replaced by Danny Namaso, after adding two more assists to his name. Joao Mário did just as many, as the match had yet another goal just before the final whistle, when a pass from the fullback allowed Toni to take the ball home.