FC PORTO cruised into the Europa League semi-finals with a 5-2 second-leg rout of SPARTAK MOSCOW.
The Portuguese side arrived in Moscow with a comfortable 5-1 lead from the first leg, and once Helton saved well from Aiden McGeady the visitors’ place in the final four never looked in doubt.
Hulk raced away from the Spartak defence to open the scoring just before the half-hour mark, and Cristian Rodriguez headed in the second just before half-time.
Freddy Guarin extended their advantage two minutes after the restart before Artem Dzjuba quickly pulled one back for the hosts by beating two men and slotting, but Falcao restored Porto’s three-goal advantage minutes later.
Spartak again pulled one back when Ari rounded Helton and slotted home, but Ruben Micael wrapped up a 5-3 aggregate win for the visitors by reacting quickest after Hulk clattered the crossbar.
Porto will now face VILLARREAL in the semi-finals after they Spanish side wrapped up a comprehensive 8-2 aggregate victory over FC TWENTE with a 3-1 second-leg win in Holland.
Twente needed to overturn a 5-1 deficit from the first leg and gave themselves a glimmer of hope when Emir Bajrami gave them the lead on the night shortly after the half-hour mark, but that would diminish on the hour when Dwight Tiendalli saw red for a foul on Mubarak Wakaso and Giuseppe Rossi netted the subsequent penalty kick.
A second penalty then handed Villarreal the lead on the night, Marco Ruben slotting home after Bart Buysse brought down Mario Perez, and Cani then wrapped up the tie with a third in added time.
Meanwhile, BENFICA fought back from two goals down to draw at PSV EINDHOVEN, with the 2-2 result ensuring their progress, 6-3 on aggregate.
Benfica entered the game with a commanding 4-1 lead from the first leg but a comeback looked more than possible when Balazs Dzsudzsak and Jeremain Lens pulled PSV within one goal inside the opening 25 minutes.
However, Luisao calmed the visitors’ nerves deep into added time at the end of the first half, and Oscar Cardozo’s penalty just after the hour ensured the Portuguese side would progress.
Benfica will meet fellow countrymen SPORTING BRAGA in the final four after they edged past DYNAMO KIEV on away goals.
Braga held a slight advantage after claiming a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Ukraine last week, but they were dealt a setback in this one when Paulo Cesar was shown the red card just before the half-hour mark.
But Kiev could not capitalise on their numerical advantage and were reduced to 10 men themselves when Goran Popov was dismissed two minutes from time.