Austria Vienna welcomed FC Porto to the Ernst-Happel-Stadion for their debut in the group stage of the Champions League this evening.
Nenad Bjelica's men were not daunted by the prospect of playing against Portugal's finest, who have won four out of four at the start of their domestic campaign, but ultimately lost out to a goal from Lucho Gonzalez.
Here, Sports Mole takes a closer look to see if the result was fair.
Match statistics
Austria Vienna
Shots: 13
On Target: 2
Possession: 32%
Corners: 5
Fouls: 15
Porto
Shots: 9
On Target: 2
Possession: 58%
Corners: 5
Fouls: 20
Was the result fair?
It's fair because Porto scored and Austria did not, but did the home side deserve a point? There's definitely a case to argue. Bjelica could not have asked for much more from his side.
Austria's performance
Plenty of effort, plenty of heart, plenty of commitment. Just not enough creativity. The only chance they had came from Marko Stankovic's header, which came back off the post, moments after falling behind. Philipp Hosiner was lost for most of the game but still had two powerful effort on goal - one which was saved by Helton and the other that narrowly missed the target. They were solid defensively, though, and Bjelica can take great pride in that.
Porto's performance
It was not the best performance by any stretch of the imagination, but they got the job done. They lacked imagination going forward and quite often passed the ball around at the back without any semblance of urgency or threat. Their main man was their goalscorer, Lucho Gonzalez, who was perhaps the best player on the pitch this evening, sitting in the holding role. Jackson Martinez looked off the pace, while Lica offered very little on his Champions League debut.
Referee's performance
Craig Thomson had a decent game, dishing out four bookings all of which were deserved. The only one that could be debated was the one for Hosiner, although opinions will differ on whether or not he was trying to con the Scot into awarding his team a penalty.
Sports Mole's man of the match
Lucho Gonzalez: The Argentine stood out in midfield and scored the goal that got his team off to a winning start in Group G.
Biggest gaffe
Nicolas Otamendi has Eliaquim Mangala and Helton to thank for sparing his blushes after having his pockets picked on the half-way line by Hosiner. The Austrian forward raced into an empty half, but was tracked all the way by Mangala, who did just enough to put the Austrian international off before he shot straight at the goalkeeper.
What's next?
Austria: Bjelica takes his team to Russia in two weeks' time to face Zenit St Petersburg.
Porto: The Portuguese outfit welcome Atletico Madrid to the Estadio do Dragao for arguably the biggest fixture in this group.
Michael Penkman
