Porto moved closer to securing their place in the Champions League knockout stages on Wednesday after easing to a 3-1 victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv.
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Tello put Porto ahead in the 19th minute when Predrag Rajkovic came hesitantly off his line and was caught in no-man’s land allowing the Porto forward to slot home easily from the right.
It was goals from Cristian Tello, Andre Andre and Miguel Layun which strengthened the Portuguese side’s hold on Group G, before a late Eran Zahavi penalty gave the hosts a few consolation. Vincent Aboubakar hit the woodwork before the break as the visitors built on their breakthrough and dominated possession for the remainder of the first half.
Maccabi are rooted to the foot of Group G without a win and lie five points adrift of third-placed Dynamo Kiev heading into the final two matches.
“Maccabi are at home and they will be a different team with motivation and a will to their win first points in the group”, he said on Tuesday.
Porto, who won the reverse game 2-0 last month, were a class above against the Israeli champions but they did at least have Eran Zahavi’s goal, their first in the competition this season, to cheer.
“We have big respect for Maccabi Tel-Aviv, they are a good team with good players and a lot of fans here”. It was our best game yet.
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Jokanovic added: “When I saw our group I believed we could take 18 points”.
