Adriano hat-trick puts Inter through

Internazionale 3 Porto 1 (Internazionale win 4-2 on aggregate)

Adriano struck a superb hat-trick as an impressive Internazionale ended Porto’s reign as the champions of Europe on tonight.

The giant Brazilian striker netted in the sixth, 64th and 87th minutes as the Italian outfit claimed a 3-1 win at the San Siro to complete a 4-2 aggregate triumph over Porto.

The Portuguese outfit, who beat Monaco 3-0 in last season’s Champions League final, had given themselves a fighting chance when, at 2-0 down, captain Jorge Costa pulled a goal back to set up what looked likely to be a grandstand finish.

But the visitors were unable to get the second breakthrough that could have taken them through on the away-goals rule and Adriano’s third late on secured a deserved victory for Roberto Mancini’s side.

Inter’s progression through to the quarter-finals, where they will join the likes of Juventus, Bayern Munich and arch-rivals AC Milan, was helped in no small part by some dismal defending by Porto early on.

After just five minutes, a misplaced pass in midfield by Diego led to Adriano giving Inter the lead.

Having picked up the loose ball the striker charged towards goal, shrugged off the challenge of veteran defender Costa before unleashing a shot from the edge of the area.

It was debatable whether that effort would have gone in but a major deflection off the sliding Pedro Emanuel saw the ball loop up over stranded Porto goalkeeper Vitor Baia and into the net, despite the best efforts of a covering Porto defender.

That was just the start that Inter would have been after and with the Italians having lost just once in their last 43 games, it left Porto with a massive mountain to climb.

Victor Fernandez’s troops tried valiantly to get back into the match and went close through Giourkas Seitaridis, half-time substitute Ricardo Quaresma and Benni McCarthy.

But a difficult task became even tougher when Adriano grabbed his second goal of the match just after the hour-mark.

He found acres of space in the visiting defence to collect a through-ball from Julio Cruz and raced into the area before smashing a shot into the roof of the net with the outside of his left foot.

That looked to be it for the visitors but they gave themselves a glimmer of hope when Costa netted in the 69th minute following a corner.

Inter had the chance to clear the danger but two defenders failed to cut out Quaresma’s corner and Costa, standing at the front post, managed to prod the loose ball home after Francesco Toldo had been unable to smother it.

With a chance of keeping their European dream alive, Porto pushed men forward in search of the equaliser.

But while they did that, they left themselves open to the counter-attack and Inter really should have killed the game off following one such breakaway 10 minutes from the end.

Javier Zanetti looked to have done the hard work as he charged his way clear of the Porto defence before rounding Baia.

However, the Argentinian’s touch took him wide of goal and Emanuel was able to get back and make a last-ditch clearance off the line.

Adriano had a chance to score from the loose ball but his shot was blocked by a desperate Porto defence.

The Brazilian was not to be denied his hat-trick for long, however, and five minutes later he picked up a pass before cutting back inside onto his left foot and drilling a low shot past Baia for the clinching goal.