Pedro poured fuel on the fire by praising the punters who goaded Brown mercilessly during the powderkeg game. He said: “Our fans behave themselves, so we expect players to behave as well.

“We don’t want to make a big issue of this. We did speak to the Celtic bench, though.”

Porto adopted a physical approach from the off with Aiden McGeady and Brown both being hacked to the ground in the first 10 minutes.

Pendrey ended up in a second-half shouting match with the ref over Brown’s treatment, while Fucile pointed at his temple to make it clear what he feels about the Scotland star. Fucile also attempted to slap Mark Wilson in the dying seconds.

Porto branded the result “unjust” on their website, but boss Jesualdo Ferreira insists he has no problems with Brown. He said: “It was a friendly match, but there are always players who very much like hard games.”

Scottish journalists were also frogmarched out of the Estadio do Dragao on Saturday night for waiting beside the Celtic team bus to speak to players – despite having the blessing of the Parkhead club.