FC Porto secured a 1-2 victory at VfB Stuttgart’s home ground in the first leg of the Round of 16 of the Europa League. The second leg will be played next Thursday at Estádio do Dragão, and the Dragons will enter the match with a one-goal advantage brought back from Germany, where Terem Moffi and Rodrigo Mora scored.

Francesco Farioli made eight changes to the starting lineup - Thiago Silva, Zaidu, Pablo Rosario, Seko Fofana, Rodrigo Mora, Borja Sainz, William Gomes, and Terem Moffi replaced Jakub Kiwior, Martim Fernandes, Alan Varela, Victor Froholdt, Gabri Veiga, Oskar Pietuszewski, Pepê, and Deniz Gül - and the first chance came just past the quarter-hour, on a free kick from the wing in favor of the home team.

From there, everything changed: within seven minutes, FC Porto scored two goals and came very close to scoring on another couple of occasions. First, William Gomes cut in from the right and hit the crossbar; a minute later, Thiago Silva won the ball back and played it to Moffi, who exchanged passes with Borja Sainz before opening the scoring (0-1).

Shortly after, Fofana set up Moffi, but the Nigerian forward saw his chance for a second goal denied by Nübel. In the 27th minute, Zaidu recovered a ball played out by the German goalkeeper, set up Rodrigo Mora, and the number 86 extended the blue and white lead with a volley from the edge of the box (0-2). Just before half time, following a confusing play in the box, the ball fell to Undav, and the German international pulled one back to make it 1-2.

VfB Stuttgart came back reinvigorated, and the FC Porto coach made three substitutions in the first quarter-hour of the second half - Rodrigo Mora, Borja Sainz, and Terem Moffi were replaced by Victor Froholdt, Pepê, and Deniz Gül. The Brazilian international started on the left wing, came close to scoring on a diagonal run, and shifted to the right when Gabri Veiga replaced William Gomes.

The home fans celebrated the tie briefly, but Tiago Tomás was offside before Angelo Stiller put the ball past Diogo Costa. With Alan Varela having replaced Seko Fofana, the blue and white captain made a solid save, and Gabri Veiga came close to making it 3-1 in the final minute of stoppage time. The qualification to the Europa League quarter-finals will be decided a week form now in Porto (March 19, 20h00).