A Porto legend, Deco is looking firmly ahead after a successful night at his old home on Wednesday.

The little playmaker spent many a successful year in northern Portugal, winning both the Uefa Cup and Champions League in consecutive seasons earlier this decade, and enjoyed a rapturous welcome from his former side's supporters.

'I was here for seven years and won many things here, but more important is the respect from the fans, and that was very nice,' he said after the game.

The 1-0 win at the Estadio do Dragao marked our first away success against Porto, where who we had visited twice before in 2004/05 and 2006/07. On the night a draw would have been enough to tie up first place in Group D, but in the end we took all three points thanks to Nicolas Anelka's winner.

It leaves us in a fine run of form as we approach the busy Christmas period, and the 32-year-old has been considering what has been going right.

'[Tonight] we played well, we had some chances to score but the second half we played better and controlled the game with possession.

'All the players are fit, it's important and we have a very good coach with another system, I think a better system for these players,' he analysed. 'All the players are working hard which is important for us.

'The atmosphere is good, we just need to maintain the same level and continue to work and we will have the possibility to win things.'