Iturra: I hope 'illegal' goal will not prove fatal

Feb 20, 2013 2:55:00 PM

Malaga lost 1-0 to Porto in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 clash on Tuesday, but replays showed Joao Moutinho's strike to be offside

EXCLUSIVE
By Adrian Boullosa

Manuel Iturra has expressed his fear that Porto could eliminate Malaga from the Champions League with what he considers to be an "illegal" strike.

Replays indicated that Joao Moutinho was offside prior to scoring the only goal of the game as the Portuguese side claimed a 1-0 last-16 at the Dragao.

"We struggled to pass the line and enter their half while controlling the ball, which are our main weapons," the 28-year-old told Goal.com.

"Porto gained possession of the ball and we didn't know what to do. We knew they had very good players, and they put us under a lot of pressure, didn't let us play and that made it very complicated for us. We lost the ball too quickly.

"[But] I hope an illegal goal doesn't eliminate us, imagine how bad that would be. Even if they were better in the game, they didn't create clear goal options and the one they scored was offside."

This is Malaga’s first time in the Champions League and they topped Group C above the likes of AC Milan and Zenit St Petersburg and Iturra refused to name inexperience as the reason for their defeat.

"I don't think we can talk about inexperience because we have players that had already played many games like this," he continued. "It wasn't a problem of the players but how the team performed.

"We are used to have the ball possession and today we got tired running after it. We hope we can play in our style at home, with our fans.

"We have to thank all the supporters that came here, our fans in Malaga and all the country, who supported us."