Porto power show sends Hamburg crashing out

PORTO have thrown Champions League Group G wide open as they notched up an impressive 3-1 victory in Hamburg to boost their chances of qualification and end any lingering hopes that the German side still had.

Captain Lucho Gonzalez opened the scoring for the away side with a magnificent 25-yard volley just on the stroke of half-time.

Lisandro Lopez added a second for the visitors on the hour mark.

Rafael van der Vaart gave the home crowd hope when his header reduced the deficit 60 seconds later but Bruno Moraes made sure of all three points for the away side late on.

The result means that Jesualdo Ferreira’s outfit now lie in joint second place with Arsenal, both just one point behind leaders CSKA Moscow.

Hamburg do not even have a chance to qualify for the UEFA Cup.

Karim Benzema fired the winner for Lyon in a 1-0 victory over Dynamo Kiev in Group E to propel them into the Champions League knockout stages and continued their remarkable victory run.

Benzema’s 14th-minute goal separated the sides in a match Gerard Houllier’s Lyon dominated for long periods to earn their fourth win out of four, and no goals conceded, to reach the last 16 from Group E.

Lyon, unbeaten this season in all competitions, have only failed to win once, in a 1-1 draw to Toulouse in their second French league match.

Nikolaos Liberopoulos scored a superb winner to give AEK Athens a 1-0 victory over 10-man Lille and re-ignite the Greek team’s hope of reaching the knockout stage.

Liberopoulos fired in a long range shot with just 16 minutes left as Lorenzo Serra Ferrer’s AEK finally broke a Lille side who played for over an hour with 10 men after Efstathios Tavlaridis’s first-half dismissal for two yellow cards.

The win puts AEK on four points — a single point behind second-placed Lille — in Group H with two games remaining.

It seemed like AEK would need to come up with something special to breach Lille’s determined rearguard and Liberopoulos delivered it to break the deadlock after 74 minutes. The Greek international sidestepped the challenge of Yohan Cabaye and rifled in a right-footed strike to send the home fans into frenzied celebrations. In 21 previous attempts, AEK Athens failed to win a Champions League match.

In Group H, Brazilian Kaka scored a hat-trick as AC Milan beat Anderlecht 4-1 to move to the brink of the Champions League’s knockout stages.

The elegant 24-year-old, who netted the only goal in the away leg in Belgium two weeks ago, scored an early penalty before linking up superbly with compatriot Cafu to double his tally before half time.

Kaka saved his best till last, driving a powerful, angled shot into the top corner 11 minutes after the restart.

Roland Juhasz pulled one back for the Belgians before Alberto Gilardino grabbed Milan’s fourth goal with a sweetly-struck half-volley.