After Romelu Lukaku’s late goal saw Inter Milan come away from February 15th’s San Siro first leg with a 1-0 aggregate lead, Simone Inzaghi’s side completed the job shrewdly on an engaging – but ultimately goalless – night in Portugal.
Second in their respective divisions, these teams produced another closely fought encounter.
Clear chances were rarer than they had been in Milan 20 days earlier, as much of the match saw Sérgio Conceição’s team struggling to break down their well organised opponents, who simultaneously looked menacing when they had the chance to break.
Even so, Porto – who finished with 10 men after Tetê picked up a late second yellow card – will still likely come away feeling highly unfortunate not have forced extra-time.
Through efforts from Iván Marcano, Mehdi Taremi and Marko Grujić, they came agonisingly close to levelling the tie on three occasions in the space of a couple of minutes in second-half stoppage time.
Nonetheless, Inter held out to secure their place in Friday's draw.
Story of the match
Porto made three changes from the first leg, which saw João Mário, veteran captain Pepe – who was ruled out through a late injury – and the suspended Otávio Monteiro make way for Fábio Cardoso, Stephen Eustáquio and Evanilson.
Inter, meanwhile, made just the one alteration from the last meeting, as Milan Škriniar – having only recently returned from injury – was replaced by right wing-back Denzel Dumfries, with Matteo Darmian dropping into the back-three.
A lively start saw visiting goalkeeper André Onana forced into a sharp early save when he tipped Mateus Uribe’s swinging 30-yard effort wide.
Eustáquio’s low 19th-minute attempt from similar range was then also clawed out by the Cameroonian stopper.
A pattern was emerging of the hosts being limited to efforts from distance, and the Serie A side’s counter-attacking threat was becoming increasingly prominent too.
Edin Džeko stinging the palms of Diogo Costa with a well-struck left-footed effort, at the end of a familiarly incisive counter, demonstrated that.
It wasn’t until the 40th minute that the hosts genuinely threatened to cut through their compact opponents. Grujić teed up Evanilson in the box at the end of a flowing move but the Brazilian’s right-footed attempt was superbly blocked by Federico Dimarco.
A Porto cross from the right flashed narrowly wide of the far-post in stoppage time at the end of the half as well, as an increased sense of urgency began to beset their play.
In between, though, there was still time for the dangerous Lautaro Martínez to win possession high up the pitch and bring another sharp stop out of Costa from a tight angle.
There was more of that urgency after the break. Alongside that, though, was more of the same in terms of chance creation.
Genuine openings were at a premium.
Uribe sent a dipping 30-yard volley narrowly over within three minutes of the restart, Wanderson Galeno saw a free-kick well blocked moments later and Barella then fired a long-range attempt narrowly wide at the other end.
The next action of note came in the 76th minute when Grujić’s low shot from the edge of the box was well watched and gathered by Onana.
Inter would probably have then put the tie to bed had Pepê not beat Martínez to Lukaku’s deflected cross-shot in the box soon after – and that allowed the hosts to give it a final big push.
Somehow, though, a goal didn't arrive.
First, in the fourth minute of stoppage time, Marcano’s left-footed effort was cleared off the line by Dumfries. Moments later, Taremi saw a close-range header tipped against the post by Onana. Then, within seconds, Grujić headed another cross from the left against the bar.
The finest of margins. The cruelest of circumstances. Yet, in some ways, an apt reflection of the closeness of this tie.
Inter it was who secured their place in the quarter-finals. That represents a significant achievement, especially when considering the three-time winners haven’t reached this stage since 2011.
They are a club who look to be on the up again – which can arguably also be said for Italian football more widely.
There now looks to be a good chance of three of the country’s clubs reaching the last-eight, after AC Milan knocked out Tottenham last week and with Napoli set to host Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday with a 2-0 aggregate lead.
A reflection, perhaps, of Serie A’s renewed strength.
Dimarco's big block
Left wing-back Dimarco was familiarly influential up and down that flank and his 40th-minute block from Evanilson’s close-range shot felt like a key moment.
It came at the end of Porto’s best move of the night. A succession of swift, accurate passes had seen the Portuguese champions work their way through much of Inter’s shape – a rare feat on the night.
However, the 25-year-old Italian international flung himself in front of the resulting shot to ensure the tie wasn’t levelled just before half-time.
The contest could have easily gone in a very different direction had he not been so alert.
Player of the match: Hakan Çalhanoğlu
The Turkish international midfielder was diligent in and out of possession in the centre of the park.
He completed 96.4% of his passes, won four of his six ground duels and teed Dimarco up in the box with a sublime flighted pass shortly after the hour mark.
On a night when it would have been easy to be wasteful and rash in several moments, the 29-year-old was a consistent source of assurance and class.
Goalkeeper Onana, who made six saves, also deserves a very honourable mention, meanwhile.
