Juventus won the battle against Porto yesterday in their second leg Champions League Round of 16 fixture, but ended up losing the war to 10 men of the Portuguese outfit.
Federico Chiesa was the man on the night for the Bianconeri, scoring two outstanding goals to pull Juventus back and troubling the opposition throughout the night with his constant movement off the ball. Not to mention his silky footwork that left the goal exposed to the winger on many occasions.
Chiesa had the chance to score a hat-trick on the night, having dribbled past the opposition’s goalkeeper. However, a last ditch effort from Pepe saw to it that the player did not get the ball into the net, and deflected it out for a corner successfully.
Juventus full-backs Alex Sandro and Juan Cuadrado were also very active, putting in crosses throughout the game and exposing the opposition on multiple occasions. The latter also got really close to winning the match for the hosts, with a shot on goal that almost curled into the goal but hit the crossbar.
Juventus’ first costly mistake was conceding the early penalty for the visitors to put themselves ahead. Pirlo’s decision of starting Merih Demiral over Matthijs De Ligt was also a questionable one considering it was him that conceded the penalty after all. Moreover, there were a few more chances where Marega was in the clear, but was stopped by Szczesny charging out.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus have now failed to progress into the quarter finals of the champions League for two years in a row. In the case of the former, it is the first time in 15 years that this has happened. And for Juventus, we could be looking at a trophy less season if things keep going on choking in this way.
