Portuguese trio set sights on quarter-finals

SL Benfica, SC Braga and FC Porto all defeated prestigious opponents last week, and Portugal will be the most represented nation in the quarter-finals if all three can preserve their leads in the UEFA Europa League round of 16 deciders.

Porto arguably find themselves in the strongest position after clinching a 1-0 victory at PFC CSKA Moskva thanks to Fredy Guarín's goal, although the 2005 UEFA Cup winners will travel to the Estádio do Dragão with some hope of turning the tie around having already won three times away from home in this season's competition.

Braga and Benfica still have work to do as they head to Liverpool FC and Paris Saint-Germain FC respectively looking to protect slender advantages. Alan's early penalty in northern Portugal extended Braga's fine home record and inflicted a first European defeat of the campaign on Kenny Dalglish's charges, at the same time extending Braga's fine home run. Domingos Paciência's players will be wary ahead of the trip to Anfield, however. They have found life harder on the road and conceded six goals at Arsenal FC on their last English mission.

Benfica were the only Portuguese side to concede last Thursday, PSG's Péguy Luyindula registering in Lisbon before Maxi Pereira and Franco Jara turned things around. The Eagles have already lost in France this term, against Olympique Lyonnais in the UEFA Champions League, although they can draw comfort from their 4-3 aggregate success over PSG in the last 16 of the UEFA Cup four years ago.

Russia and the Netherlands are the only other nations with three survivors remaining yet both seem likely to suffer casualties. While CSKA were beaten at home, 2008 UEFA Cup winners FC Zenit St Petersburg endured a humbling 3-0 loss at FC Twente. The Dutch titleholders will fancy their chances of prevailing in Russia having already notched a 2-0 win there against FC Rubin Kazan in the previous round. Russian pride was restored to an extent by FC Spartak Moskva, who clinched a commendable 1-0 triumph at AFC Ajax through Alex's goal.

PSV Eindhoven's quarter-final hopes are also intact, even if the Eredivisie leaders will need to be more clinical in front of goal to overcome Rangers FC at Ibrox. Fred Rutten's men dominated the first leg on home soil yet struggled to create clear openings as the contest finished goalless. Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Villarreal CF have provided the most dramatic tie so far, the Spanish club snatching a 3-2 win in Germany. The 1988 UEFA Cup winners have prevailed on just two of their 11 previous trips to Spain and may struggle to recover from Nilmar's dramatic added-time goal at the BayArena.

Another team attempting to overhaul a deficit is Manchester City FC. Andriy Shevchenko rolled back the years to inspire FC Dynamo Kyiv to a superb 2-0 victory in Ukraine, the former Ballon d'Or winner getting the opening goal to continue his fine form against the English outfit. The former Chelsea FC man has finished on the winning side on the three occasions he has played City, without his clubs even shipping a goal.