Maccabi Tel Aviv slipped to their fourth consecutive Champions League defeat on Wednesday night, but there was at least some consolation as Eran Zahavi ended their embarrassing barren spell in front of goal, scoring the team's first strike in the group stages as they went down 3-1 at home to Porto.
Defeats against Chelsea, Dynamo Kiev and the Portuguese champions meant qualification was already a distant hope before kick-off at the Samy Ofer Stadium in Haifa and it took the visitors just 19 minutes to add to Maccabi's pain, with on-loan Barcelona striker Tello opening the scoring. He lifted the ball past goalkeeper Predrag Rajković after Maccabi's failure to clear had dragged right-back Eytan Tibi out of position.
Porto stepped up a gear and almost scored a second before half-time but Vincent Aboubakar was denied by the frame of the goal with only Rajković to beat.
It was a brief reprieve. Within four minutes of the restart, André André headed in Maxi Pereira's cross to double the lead and put daylight between the teams in a contest where Zahavi and Tal Ben Haim II threatened on occasion.
Zahavi ensured Maccabi did not go down without a fight however, although he spurned a couple of good chances but it was Layún who struck next to make it 3-0.
But three minutes later Zahavi claimed a much-deserved consolation from the penalty spot 15 minutes from time and left coach Slaviša Jokanović dreaming of what might have been in a game where Maccabi had nine chances to Porto's 19.
He said: "We had a lot of chances that we didn't convert. It was our best game yet. You could see the difference between the teams, but I'm very proud as we pushed ourselves.
"believed we could pick up 18 points from the group stage – it's my professional approach to want to win every match.
"We're out of the competition but we still have some important matches coming up."
Porto boss Julen Lopetegui commented: "It was a difficult game against a very hard team who were clearly hungry for their first points. I'm delighted with my boys: they made it look easy."
Maccabi host Chelsea on Matchday 5 before concluding their programme in Kyiv.
GROUP G TABLE
1. Porto Pl. 4, Pts. 10
2. Chelsea Pl. 4, Pts. 7
3. Dynamo Kyiv Pl. 4, Pts. 5
4. Maccabi Tel Aviv Pl. 4, Pts. 0