Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus suffered a first leg defeat against Portuguese champions FC Porto in their Round of 16 UEFA Champions League clash at the Estadio do Dragao in Porto.
Porto capitalised on the opportunity when they saw that Juventus looked far from their best to go on to win the all important first-leg in the first round of the knockout stage of Europe’s premier club competition.
It took just 1 minute for the Portuguese side to take the lead with Iran’s Mehdi Taremi opening the scoring by punishing Rodrigo Bentancur for an error on the defensive end.
To add to Juventus’ woes, Malian striker Moussa Marega made it 2-0 for the hosts right after the first-half break and it did not look like the Italian champions could make a comeback.
However, Federico Chiesa managed to net a goal for the Italian giants, which could be crucial going into the second leg as it could come down to away goals given Juve’s incredible defensive record at home.
Porto’s Iranian forward Mehdi Taremi (centre) opened the scoring for FC Porto.
(Photo by Paulo Oliveira/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
It was a night to forget for defender Bentancur, who attempted to pass the ball back to Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny but Taremi was there to pounce on the gift who skipped past Szczesny to score his first Champions League goal.
FC Porto’s constant high press almost led to another goal in the 23rd minute as Szczesny’s clearance fell to Sergio Oliveira whose shot luckily took a deflection to go wide to not add to Juventus’ misery. The loss of Giorgio Chiellini was telling for Juventus as they were exposed at the back without their veteran centre-back.
It took Juventus 41 minutes to have their first shot on goal but that was called offside when Adrien Rabiot’s overhead kick was saved by goalkeeper Agustin Marchesin.
The second half could not have started off in a better way for Porto as Marega doubled the home team’s lead after latching onto a Wilson Manafa cross to make it 2-0.
Cristiano Ronaldo managed his first shot of the game after 50 minutes of the game but his effort was comfortably blocked. Porto continued to be resilient as they pushed on to make it 3 but Sergio Oliveira’s effort was well-saved by the Juve goalkeeper.
Chiesa gave Andrea Pirlo’s side hope going into the second leg to turn things around after scoring from a pullback by Rabiot. This was the first goal that the Portuguese champions conceded at home this season in the Champions League and the 2-time European champions managed to secure the victory over fellow 2-time winners, Juventus to take a lead going into the second leg in Turin.
