Thu, April 16, 2009
LONDON, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Cristiano Ronaldo struck a stunning 40 yarder as Manchester United saw off Porto on Wednesday to set up a Champions League semifinal tie against Arsenal.
Ronaldo's thunderous early goal gave a 1-0 away victory and an overall 3-2 success to the defending champions, who became the first English side to win at Porto in European competition.
Manchester will next meet Arsenal, who hammered Villarreal 3-0 at home to advance on an aggregate 4-1.
Arsenal produced a dominant attacking display to beat 10-man Villarreal, thanks to goals from Theo Walcott and Emmanuel Adebayor, and a Robin van Persie penalty, with the loss of a number of injured key defenders including William Gallas and Bacary Sagna.
England will have three sides in the last four for the third successive season as Chelsea upset Premier League rivals Liverpool to progress 7-5 over the two legs.
Chelsea are to play Spanish side Barcelona, with the latter easing through 5-1 on aggregate against Bayern Munich after a 1-1 draw in Germany.
Porto were punished for a slow start and Ronaldo stunned home fans after only six minutes, smashing his unstoppable shot from just shy of 40 yards into the top corner.
Nemanja Vidic missed a great chance from five yards late in the first half and Dimitar Berbatov had a shot saved.
The hosts gradually forced their way into the match and came close to equalizing on 20 minutes when Bruno Alves's free kick flew inches wide of the post.
Porto continued the pressure towards the end but United hung onto victory with resolute defence.
Lisandro Lopez might have scored a dramatic late goal for Porto, but Edwin van der Sar saved his weak shot.
At Emirates, Cesc Fabregas smartly flicked on a Emmanuel Eboue's forward pass into the path of Walcott, who coolly lobbed in over keeper Diego Lopez to put Arsenal ahead after ten minutes .
For all the worries of Arsenal's fallibility in the back, it turned out to be the visitors to suffer heavily from a loose defence.
Arsenal should have doubled their lead after 28 minutes when van Persie's free kick was saved by Lopez and Adebayor's follow-up header was almost knocked over the line before Gonzalo Rodriguez finally cleared.
But they were put firmly in charge on the hour mark, with unmarked Adebayor producing a neat finish to Van Persie's pass.
Nine minutes later came the worst for Villarreal when Sebastian Eguren was sent off on a second yellow card for disputing an Arsenal penalty after Diego Godin was harshly adjudged to have fouled Walcott. Van Persie held the nerve to convert the resulting spot-kick.
