Both teams failed to trouble the score-sheet and the tie now heads to Dortmund with everything to play for.

But despite failing to find the back of the net in front of their home crowd, a happy Pellegrini said he was content with his team’s performance, able to keep the ‘excellent’ Dortmund at bay.

And the 59-year-old was quietly confident Malaga could sneak into the semi-finals with a shock result in Germany.

“It was a very good game from both teams, who each tried to get into the opposition box,” Pellegrini told uefa.com. “The crowd were happy. Dortmund are an excellent side.

“If we look at their campaign in this UEFA Champions League season, they scored four goals at Ajax, also scored in Madrid and again away to Manchester City.

“It was an open game and the tie is absolutely open. Let’s start well in Dortmund.”

However, Malaga will be without both Weligton and Manuel Iturra for the return trip, and Pellegrini must devise a plan to keep Dortmund’s young brigade without the duo.

“(Weligton and Manuel Iturra) are important players; luckily (Martín) Demichelis didn’t get a yellow card as well, so we will see how we replace those two,” he said.

“Dortmund’s team are all good young players with great technique and dynamism.”

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The Portugal international slotted home Alex Sandro’s pinpoint pass 11 minutes into the second half to earn Porto victory in a match of few clearcut chances at the Estadio do Dragao.

The defeat was Malaga’s first in its maiden Champions League campaign, but Manuel Pellegrini’s men will be hopeful of turning things round at La Rosaleda, where they beat both AC Milan and Zenit St Petersburg in the group stages.

Two-time former European champions Porto will also be optimistic about their chances of going through to the quarterfinals, although they would have preferred a bigger advantage for the trip to Andalusia.

Vitor Pereira’s hosts dominated the first half in terms of possession and territory, but created little to trouble visiting goalkeeper Willy Caballero.

The majority of Porto’s efforts before the break were off-target, although Marat Izmailov did bring a diving save out of Caballero in the fourth minute.

Porto’s next two chances saw Fernando and Silvestre Varela head Moutinho corners just wide before Caballero was called into action again on the half-hour mark to comfortably gather an optimistic Fernando shot.

At the other end Malaga only ventured deep into Porto territory sporadically as the respective defenses — the tightest in the Portuguese and Spanish leagues this season — held the upper hand.

The home side would have been disappointed not to have worked Caballero more in the first period, but they came out strongly at the start of the second half and took just six minutes to fashion the best chance of the game so far.

Sandro sent over a cross from the left and the stretching Izmailov almost managed to turn it into the net, despite not getting a clean connection on his half-volley.

That was a major let-off for Malaga, but they were not so fortunate five minutes later as 1987 and 2004 champions Porto took the lead through Moutinho following more good work from Sandro.

The Brazilian did well to create space before picking out his teammate’s run into the box with an inch-perfect pass between the Malaga defence and goalkeeper Caballero, which the highly-rated Moutinho clinically side-footed home first time.

That proved to be the only goal of the match as defenses continued to dominate during the closing stages, leaving things finely poised for the second leg.

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