No worries for relaxed Porto

Porto boss Andre Villas-Boas is not worried ahead of his side’s second-leg Europa League quarter-final against Spartak Moscow on Thursday.

Porto, who have already wrapped up the Liga Sagres title, travel to Russia with a four-goal aggregate lead after they dished out a 5-1 thumping in the first-leg.

They appear certain to progress to the last four and are now able to put their full focus on succeeding Europe’s second-tier club competition, which Villas-Boas’ side’s are favourites to win.

“I think everything will be all right,” Villas-Boas said.

“The score in the first game was in our favour that is why tomorrow we will have some freedom to act and maybe to improvise.”

“In any case in this game the most important thing for us is to get into next stage of the tournament.”

With the first-leg ending in such a lopsided result, Spartak Moscow manager Valery Karpin appears resigned to his team’s fate.

Karpin said last week’s result was not an accurate reflection of his side, and hoped they could put in a better performance in Moscow on Thursday.

“I don’t think (the result) was a shame, but it wasn’t the best impression that the team has made,” Karpin said.

“I think that is the best motivation for the second game. I don’t think it is right to think about 4-0 or 5-0 scores, I think we should just go out there and show that what happened with Porto – besides the 20-25 minutes in the first half – is not our level.”

“This should be the best motivation. There’s no need to find extra words to motivate the team.”