Nuno praises ´suffering´ Porto

Nuno Espirito Santo feels his Porto side are a work in progress and admits they were not at their best despite knocking Club Brugge out of the Champions in a 1-0 win.

A Thomas Pina own-goal proved to be decisive as Porto earned a hard-fought three points at Estadio Do Dragao to go two clear of Copenhagen in second place in Group G.

Porto now have five victories in their past six competitive matches, but head coach Nuno felt his side should have done more to put the game beyond the Belgian champions.

“In the Champions League it is important, after going ahead, to know how to kill the match with a second goal,” he told reporters.

“We were not able to do that, so we ended up suffering a little, but we held on. I have to highlight the effort every player put in defensively, which is always a collective job.”

Nuno brought on Ruben Neves just after the hour mark to stem the visitors’ pressure and the coach was impressed by the midfielder’s impact.

“The introduction of Ruben Neves in the second half brought more consistency to our midfield” Santo continued.

“We are now a step closer to where we want to be – the next stage of this competition.”

Porto next face a make-or-break clash with Copenhagen in Denmark and Andre Silva, who had a big hand in the winning goal, called on the team to fight for their last-16 progression.

“It is always important when you score the winning goal,” he said. 

“If we had gotten a second goal we would have suffered a little less in the end, but we were able to secure our advantage.

“We knew Brugge would make our life difficult, but we were fortunate to score first, which made things a little easier. Now we have to go into our next match [against Copenhagen], in Denmark, with the same confidence. We will have to fight until the end.”