Quaresma wins it for Porto

Besiktas 0 Porto 1

Ricardo Quaresma stunned Besiktas with a stoppage-time winner on Wednesday evening to boost Porto’s hopes of qualification from Champions League Group A.

Portugal winger Quaresma popped up with seconds remaining to secure three precious points and make it two defeats out of two for the Turkish side.

The victory leaves Porto in second place in Group A behind Marseille, who were surprise 1-0 winners against last year’s beaten finalists Liverpool at Anfield.

Besiktas came flying out of the traps and could have been in front just three minutes in when Matias Delgado crossed for Bobo who headed wastefully over the crossbar.

Porto struggled to get into their stride in the opening 15 minutes, with the home side on the front foot and Rodrigo Tello flashed a venomous right-foot drive narrowly wide of the left-hand post 12 minutes in.

The Portuguese giants had their first attempt on goal when the highly-rated Quaresma’s left-foot free-kick was fumbled by Hakan Arikan.

But it was Besiktas who looked the more likely to opening the scoring and Edouard Cisse would have been disappointed not to have hit the target with a right-foot strike from just outside the penalty area.

The crowd were on their feet once again when Serdar Ozcan swung in a corner from the right which was met by the head of Bobo six yards from goal and the Brazilian striker could only watch on in amazement as Helton produced a fabulous save.

That was to be the last part Bobo played in the match as he was withdrawn just before the half-hour mark after sustaining what looked like a serious injury.

Bobo’s injury seemed to disrupt the hosts and Porto started to show some positive intent, with Raul Meireles trying his luck from distance but failing to trouble Hakan Arikan.

Meireles clearly fancied his chances from distance but he was once again off target with a left-footed strike from 30 yards out.

But it was Besiktas who again came close to scoring when Delgado left fly with his right foot from 20 yards out and Helton once again produced a fine save.

Porto came out for the second half with a more positive approach and Lisandro Lopez tried his luck from 25 yards out but failed to keep his shot down.

And it took an excellent save from Arikan to deny Quaresma after the lively winger met Lucho Gonzalez’s inviting cross.

The visitors continued to push forward in search of the opener and Quaresma turned provider for substitute Adriano, who failed to hit the target from just six yards out.

Quaresma was pulling the strings for the visitors but he was once again off target with a free-kick from 20 yards out, but he was not to be denied and stunned the home supporters with a last-gasp winner.

With time seemingly running out the 24-year-old volleyed home from close range to secure all three points and leave Besiktas with it all to do to prolong their participation in the competition beyond the group stage.