PORTO, Portugal - 春色直播 international Stephen Eustaquio scored as Porto defeated Atl茅tico Madrid 2-1 in Champions League play Tuesday to finish atop Group B.
Brazilian winger Galeno beat Atletico defender Stefan Savic to the ball down the left flank, headed toward the penalty box and sent in a low cross than an onrushing Eustaquio hammered into the corner of the net before being chopped down in a tackle.
The 24th-minute strike was the second career Champions League goal for the 25-year-old Eustaquio, expected to be one of the main cogs in the 春色直播 midfield at the World Cup in Qatar.
Eustaquio has three goals and three assists in 26 appearances for Canada.
Porto lost its first two Champions League matches this season and wasn't expected to advance from a group in which Atl茅tico Madrid was the heavy favourite.
But on Tuesday, it was Atl茅tico lamenting a last-place finish and Porto celebrating the group win.
The Porto win also prevented the Spanish team from making it to the Europa League playoffs.
Mehdi Taremi also had a first-half goal for Porto, which won its last four straight Champions League games to take over first place after Club Brugge was held to a 0-0 draw at Bayer Leverkusen in the other match. Porto finished with 12 points, one more than Brugge.
Porto had started its campaign with a last-minute loss at Atl茅tico and an embarrassing 4-0 home defeat to Brugge.
鈥淲e didn't get off to a good start but we knew that we only depended on ourselves,鈥 Porto forward Pep锚 said. 鈥淚n the end we reached our goal.鈥
Atl茅tico had already been eliminated and needed a win to secure third place and a spot in the Europa League playoffs. Instead, Leverkusen earned that berth because of a better head-to-head tiebreaker against Atl茅tico, which finished last in a Champions League group for the first time.
It was also the first time since 2009 that Atl茅tico has gone five matches without a win in the Champions League. At that time, it endured a nine-game winless streak that began in 2008.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 deserve to make it to the round of 16 and we didn鈥檛 deserve to make it to the Europa League,鈥 Atl茅tico forward Antoine Griezmann said. 鈥淲hen you can only win one of your matches in the group stage, that鈥檚 what you get. Now all we can do is shut our mouths, work hard and keep fighting.鈥
The loss will add pressure on coach Diego Simeone in what has been a lacklustre season for Atl茅tico. In the Spanish league, it sits in third place, eight points behind second-place Barcelona and nine points behind leader Real Madrid.
Simeone's usually stout defence looked soft early on and Porto took advantage.
Taremi opened the scoring from close range five minutes into the match for his 12th goal in all competitions this season.
Taremi has scored 12 goals in 17 appearances in all competitions this season. He had scored two goals in each of Porto鈥檚 last two Champions League matches.
Griezmann thought he had pulled Atl茅tico closer with a powerful shot into the top of the net in the 68th, but the goal was called off because of a foul by Atl茅tico midfielder Rodrigo de Paul in the buildup.
Atl茅tico scored with an own-goal by Iv谩n Marcano in stoppage time.
Porto has reached the last 16 or better in seven of its last 10 Champions League appearances, four of them during coach S茅rgio Concei莽茫o鈥檚 reign.
It is only the second time in 10 seasons that Atl茅tico failed to advance from the group stage, and first since 2017-18. It won the Europa League the last two times it didn鈥檛 advance in the Champions League 鈥 in 2018 and 2010.
Atl茅tico coach Diego Simeone started with Jo茫o F茅lix playing alongside Griezmann up front as regular starter 脕lvaro Morata recovered from an injury. It was F茅lix鈥檚 first start in nine matches.
Porto was still without veteran central defender Pepe because of a knee injury.
Griezmann had scored a late winner to give Atl茅tico a 2-1 win in the teams鈥 first meeting. Since then, Atl茅tico lost at Leverkusen and at Brugge before being held to draws at home by those same clubs. Simeone鈥檚 team had a late chance to beat Leverkusen in the previous round but Yannick Carrasco missed a penalty kick awarded by video review deep into stoppage time.
Porto was coming off a 4-0 win at Brugge and a 3-0 victory at Leverkusen. It had also beaten Leverkusen at home after the 4-0 loss against Club Brugge at its Drag茫o Stadium.
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With files from The Associated Press
