Champions League review:Colombian James Rodriguez hit a swerving left-footed winner with five minutes to go to hand Porto a 1-0 victory over Paris St Germain and give the Portuguese champions maximum points in Champions League Group A.
Porto bossed PSG from the start, pressed high and controlled most of possession, relegating the Ligue 1 runners-up to occasional counter attacks. Although Rodriguez's goal came late, there were plenty of chances for both sides. Porto could have gone ahead earlier through busy midfielder Joao Moutinho and Rodriguez, who both missed several chances.
"This was an important goal, I tried to score over and over again. Now we are favourites to go through but we have to do it step by step," the 21-year old Rodriguez told Portuguese radio.
PSG striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who turned 31 on Wednesday, also had two excellent chances of his own, which he wasted. The Swede headed wide from playmaker Nene's cross. Then, after pulling clear of Porto's back four and with acres of space, he tried to lob the keeper with a neat first-touch back heel but a stretching Helton palmed the ball behind.
"Sure, we gave away a chance here and there but that's natural when playing against a good team like PSG," said Porto coach Vitor Pereira. "We passed the ball around, set the match's tempo and created plenty of chances with a lot of quality in attack and consistency at the back."
In the other Group A match, Dynamo Kievbeat Dinamo Zagreb2-0 to go level on three points with PSG.
AC Milantook advantage of two deflected goals to beat Zenit St Petersburg3-2 in Russia to move to the top of Group Cfor a few hours before
Malaganotched maximum points with a 3-0 at Anderlecht.
The Russians champions fought back from two down to level before Milan scored the winner with 14 minutes remaining when a low Riccardo Montolivo shot hit Zenit defender Tomas Hubocan and slid into the near corner.
The Italians scored twice in the first quarter of an hour, with the home side in disarray.
Urby Emanuelson put the visitors ahead with a 20-metre free kick that took a deflection, wrong-footing Zenit keeper Vyacheslav Malafeyev in the 13th minute.
Stephan El Shaarawy, who turns 20 this month, doubled the lead three minutes later after a mazy solo run through the Zenit defence, becoming the youngest player to score for Milan in Europe's elite club competition.
Brazil striker Hulk, who joined Zenit from Porto for a club record €60 million before last month's transfer deadline, pulled one back for the home side just before the break before setting up Roman Shirokov's equaliser four minutes into the second half.
The homeside were then rocked by the winner but would have got something out of the game were it not for the outstanding form of Milan goalkeeper Christian Abbiati.
