Romelu Lukaku's lone goal in Inter Milan's 1-0 victory over Porto on Wednesday gave Inter Milan a decent chance to go to the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time in more than ten years.
In the first game's final four minutes leg at the San Siro, Belgium attacker Romelu Lukaku scored off the rebound of his header to put an exciting contest to rest. The second goal by Lukaku in as many games across all competitions will determine who advances to the last eight when Simone Inzaghi's team travels to Portugal next month.
The 29-year-old, who has battled injuries all season, scored his first league goal since August at the weekend and came off the bench to give Inter a lead to defend in the second leg as they advance to their first quarterfinal match since 2011.
After pivotal midfielder Otavio, who was making his first appearance since the beginning of February, was sent in the 78th minute for two bookable offences, Lukaku was left on the bench while Sergio Conceicao's Porto played the remainder of the game with ten men.
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The Portuguese champions have recently been a bogey squad for Italian sides. Still, if they want to add to their list of Serie A victims, including Juventus and Roma, they will need to turn the aggregate score around.
Inter should have taken the lead when Lautaro Martinez received Federico Dimarco's long cross in the 13th minute, but Martinez's header went over the crossbar.
Five minutes later, Hakan Calhanoglu, a Turkey international, played a one-two from his corner and sent a brilliantly executed attempt shot that almost went in at the near post, forcing a spectacular save from Diogo Costa.
Unfortunately, Porto missed the best opportunity of a poor first half in the 37th minute following a magnificent team play, their first credible effort of the game.
Mehdi Taremi provided the ideal layoff following Otavio's pass. Still, Marko Grujic might have done better in front of Andre Onana before Henderson Galeno missed the opportunity with the goal gaping.
Alessandro Bastoni's flicked header from Dimarco's inswinging free-kick was excellently stopped by Costa, who ensured that the teams would go into the half even. Before Porto squandered two more excellent chances to grab the lead, Barella glanced barely wide.
Terami's feeble shot at Onana in the 54th minute came at the end of a quick break started by his striker partner Pepe. Three minutes later, Onana again saved Inter's bacon in seconds.
Before former Cameroon goalkeeper Onana grabbed at the Porto left-second back's attempt and recovered in time to stop what appeared to be a definite Taremi goal, Milan Skriniar did well to stop Zaidu's low shot.
The promising Lukaku immediately replaced Edin Dzeko, and in the 72nd minute, the Belgian forward almost set up Martinez for the game's first goal.
Martinez almost met a tempting low cross as he slid into the six-yard box, but he couldn't connect with it. When it appeared as if the game would end in a scoreless draw, Lukaku headed Nicolo Barella's cross against the post and buried the game-winning goal off the rebound.
