The spot-kick was awarded following a VAR review in the 117th minute. Fernando went down as he tried to meet Maxi Pereira’s low shot across the face of goal. After studying the pitch-side monitor, the referee judged that his shirt had been tugged by Alessandro Florenzi.
Alex Telles emphatically converted the penalty to give Porto a 4-3 aggregate win in the last- 16 tie and heap further pressure on Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco. Shortly afterwards, Roma thought it had won a penalty when the referee stopped the game while the video assistant looked for a possible push by Moussa Marega on Patrik Schick. But play was waved on this time, without a pitch-side review.
Porto defender Pepe will miss the quarter-final first leg through suspension after being booked for a clash with Edin Dzeko. The pair pressed their foreheads against each other and the Roma forward than fell over backwards. Dzeko was also yellow-carded for the farcical incident.
At the start, Porto quickly took control and it was no surprise when it went ahead in the 26th minute. Marega won possession, exchanged passes with Jesus Corona and slipped the ball inside for Tiquinho Soares, with the Brazilian turning it in from point-blank range.
Roma, however, equalised from out of the blue. It was helped by a schoolboy error from Eder Militao, who stuck out a leg inside the box as Diego Perotti cut inside him.
The referee then immediately pointed to the spot. Daniele De Rossi produced a stuttering run-up and nonchalantly sent keeper Iker Casillas the wrong way.
Yet, after De Rossi went off injured, Porto regained control and was back in front seven minutes after the break. Corona crossed from the left and Marega easily got away from his marker and side-footed the ball into the roof of the net to level the aggregate score at 3-3. Roma wasted a glorious chance before the end of normal time when Pepe sent the ball straight to Perotti, but the latter shot high and wide from inside the penalty area. Dzeko also missed two chances shortly before Porto’s penalty.
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