Champions League team profiles: Porto v Roma

Roma take lead to Portugal

Roma are 4-7 to qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals after beating Porto 2-1 in the Italian capital.

All the action came late as Roma teenager Nicolo Zaniolo's double put last season's semi-finalists in a great position, only for Adrian Lopez to put Porto back in contention with a crucial away goal.

Porto are 13-8 to overturn the deficit and manager Sergio Conceicao said: "Our goal leaves it all open for second leg. A draw would have been the fair result."

Porto profile

How they qualified
It was easy for Porto, who topped the weakest section, containing Schalke, Galatasaray and Lokomotiv Moscow. They scored the most headers (four), but kept only one clean sheet.

Form
Porto have not suffered a defeat in any competition since a 1-0 reverse at Benfica in early October, although they lost the Portuguese League Cup final on penalties to Sporting and have also drawn their last two league matches against Vitoria Guimaraes and Moreirense.

Winter transfer action
Four players arrived including veteran centre-back Pepe, now 35, who returns to the club he represented from 2004 to 2007. Fernando Andrade, Wilson Manafa and Mamadou N'Diaye joined Pepe.

Prospects
Rarely an easy team to see off, Porto tend to punch above their financial weight but not by enough to get close in top company when it comes to the latter stages.

Roma profile

How they qualified
Home and away defeats to Real Madrid by an aggregate 5-0 showed Roma's limitations but they were otherwise strong at home, beating Viktoria Plzen 5-0 and CSKA Moscow 3-0.

Form
Roma have lost only twice since and one of those was 1-0 at Juventus, but the other - a 7-1 humiliation in the cup at Fiorentina - has piled the pressure on coach Eusebio Di Francesco. The boss can point to injury problems which have made life tricky.

Winter transfer action
Much to the annoyance of supporters, Roma kept their powder dry.

Prospects
Roma are a weaker team than last season, when they beat Barcelona and went out in a memorable semi-final to Liverpool. That said, the Wolves are fancied to at least reach the last eight, which is probably the limit for the Italians this season.

Schedule

First leg: Stadio Olimpico (Rome), February 12
Second leg: Estadio Dragao (Porto), March 6

TV details

All matches are on BT Sport.

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