Ghana’s Kamal Sowah scored his first Uefa Champions League goal as Club Brugge pulled off a shock 4-0 win at FC Porto Tuesday night.
It was the 22-year-old’s pass that led to the visiting Belgians’ early penalty won and converted by Ferran Jutgla. It was followed by two quick goals after halftime from Sowah and Andreas Skov Olsen before a late effort from teenage substitute Antonio Nusa put the seal on a massive upset.
The Belgian champions, who finished bottom of their group in last season’s campaign, went ahead after 15 minutes when Joao Mario brought down Jutgla and Brugge’s new Spanish signing picked himself up at the Estadio Dragao to convert the spot kick.
Porto, who suffered a last-gasp loss at Atletico Madrid last week, looked out of sorts and failed to conjure up a response with their only real first-half chance falling to winger Pepe, whose effort was smothered by goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.
Two minutes into the second half, Jutgla tried to dribble past a maze of defenders on the edge of Porto’s penalty area and, as the ball got away from him it fell fortuitously for Kamal Sowah to steer his way through and score from close range.
Porto’s defence had been caught napping by the quick thinking of the Ghanaian attacker and were static again as Brugge went 3-0 ahead in the 52nd minute.
Bjorn Meijer hit a low cross from the left that was allowed to go all the way through to the other side where an unmarked Skov Olsen was able to fire home under keeper Diogo Costa.
A frustrated Porto continued to struggle to create chances with a confident Brugge seeing off their efforts, while remaining dangerous on the counter-attack.
Raphael Onyedika’s 86th minute effort came back off the upright but Brugge did get a fourth as Nusa, on his Champions League debut, ran clear of the defence to finish with a calmness that belied his 17 years.
Club Brugge thus move to six points, ahead of Leverkusen and Atletico Madrid who have three each after the German side beat the Spaniards 2-0 also on Tuesday. Porto are bottom with no points.
Brugge next host Atletico on October 4 when twice European champions Porto will attempt to pick up the pieces of their campaign at home to Leverkusen.
– Culled from Reuters with additional inputs.
