Porto delight as they match Madrid and Barcelona

Porto will grace the UEFA Champions League stage for a record-equalling 21st time this season having entered Rome's Stadio Olimpico without any fear, and left with their ticket punched for a sixth straight campaign on Europe's biggest stage.

Goals from Felipe, Miguel Layún and Jesús Corona saw the Portuguese side complete a 4-1 aggregate victory over Roma and earned them the right to even more UEFA Champions League football in 2016/17.

Only Real Madrid and Barcelona are on a par in terms of campaigns in European football's elite club competition and it is difficult to counter Layún's claim that "Porto's place is in the Champions League."

Iker Casillas©AFP/Getty Images

The UEFA Champions League is also where Porto goalkeeper Iker Casillas belongs. He was a Madrid player for 16 of their 21 campaigns and now he will make it 18 in a row on a personal level having added two more with the Portuguese side.

The Spaniard is just one season short of Ryan Giggs' overall record of 19 UEFA Champions League seasons. With 156 appearances, though, he has no equals.

"I've been in the Champions League for many years now and it's important to be in Europe's biggest competition," said the 35-year-old at the Stadio Olimpico. "We've got big ambitions."

For Jesús Corona it will be a second taste of the competition, and he was him that put the cherry on top of an emphatic team performance with an unstoppable strike past Wojciech Szczęsny.

"It was our objective to make it and we're delighted to be here," he told UEFA.com. "It's very important to be in the group stage. We've been working hard on this, our objective. It's important for the path we are on, together as a team."

A team who have found their home, in the UEFA Champions League.