Sparta stun Porto

For once Sparta triumphed on their European travels

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Porto 0-1 Sparta Prague

Sparta Prague's Libor Sionko scored against the run of play to secure a 1-0 win for the Czech Republic side against FC Porto in the European Champions League group C game.

The win, only the Czechs' third victory on the road in their last 16 matches in the competition, revived Sparta's campaign.

The Czechs had lost 3-2 to Real Madrid in their opening group game.

Porto twice hit the woodwork, but paid the price of poor finishing.

The Portuguese side have just one point after drawing their first game against Panathinaikos.

Sionko's 75 minute goal came from a mistake by Porto goalkeeper Paulo Santos.

Santos let Sionko's weak header bounce on the grass and beyond his reach.

For long periods Porto had Sparta on the ropes, with Nuno Capucho and Brazilians Deco and Pena prominent.

Deco was the main danger.

His corner after eight minutes bounced on the goal-line and almost went in.

Soon after Jan Flachbart headed another Deco corner off the line after goalkeeper Petr Cech was beaten.

The Brazilian also hit the woodwork just before the interval.

Martin Hasek scraped the bar for Sparta with a shot on 15 minutes and Ratislav Michalik tested Santos with a powerful long-range effort five minutes later.

A Helder Postiga header looked to have rescued a point for Porto, but it came back off the post.

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Porto: Paulo Santos, Carvalho, Paredes, Sousa, Andrade, Soderstrom, Ibarra, Capucho, Clayton Cruz, Silva, Pena. Subs: Espinha, Junior, Paulinho Santos, Candido Costa, Paolo, Ricardo Silva, Postiga.

Sparta Prague: Cech, Labant; Hasek, Flachbart, Novotny, Kincl, Michalik, Hartig, Sionko, Huebschmann, Jarosik. Subs: Spit, Zelenka, Radim Holub, Papousek, Abanda, Sloncik, Mynar.

Referee: Nikolai Levnikov (Russia).