Juventus and Cristiano Ronaldo saw their attempt to conquer the Champions League ended prematurely for the third consecutive year after being eliminated on Tuesday by Portuguese Porto , heroic in their resistance and who took the ticket to the quarterfinals despite losing by 3 -2 in the second leg in Turin.
The first year of ‘Mister Champions’ in the ‘Vecchia Signora’ finished in the quarterfinals against Ajax , the second in the second round against Olympique Lyon and the third against the ‘Dragons’, able to withstand the emergence of Federico Chiesa, who was He became a figure before the black night of ‘7’, and a nonsense by Mehdi Taremi to avoid even the penalty shoot-out.
Portuguese ambush
Porto ambushed Juve from the opening whistle. Even the childish mistake of his Iranian striker worked for him. Although it was Morata who had a great opportunity as soon as he started with a header from Marchesín , he always gave the sensation in the first 45 minutes that he had controlled the duel.
Appealing to his order, the visitors took the game to their land, holding off the attack of Andrea Pirlo’s, excessively predictable and practically entrusted to Cuadrado’s centers . In addition, Porto managed to deploy with danger, and after a serious warning from Taremi , with a frank shot that crashed in Bonucci and a subsequent header to the crossbar, put the tie uphill for the ‘Vecchia Signora’.
Unnecessary penalty
Sergio Oliveira did not forgive Demiral’s unnecessary penalty to Taremi in the 19th minute and confirmed the plan envisaged by his coach. The Serie A champion, with Cristiano well controlled and not very participatory, suffered, but despite the fact that the Portuguese team arrived with more danger, Morata had the best until the break , who ran into Marchesín again after another great square center.
Juventus needed to improve for the second act and, although the step forward was not too important, they found Chiesa and Taremi. The forward ‘caught’ a drop from Cristiano to ‘nail’ the ball in the squad and tie the clash, while the Iranian was innocent with two yellows in a couple of minutes , the second (m. 54) for hitting a ball with a foul already called, which ruined everything planned by Sergio Conceiçao.
Pepe’s hierarchy
Minutes later, Chiesa equalized the tie after perfectly heading the umpteenth center of Cuadrado and just after having forgiven a heads-up.
There, Porto was ‘touched’, but his coach adjusted his pieces and managed, helped by Pepe’s hierarchy, by the quality of Sergio Oliveira and by a certain local fear of a goal that would leave him out, hold out until an extension that was On the verge of not being disputed because Cuadrado rumbled the crossbar in 93.
The extension , with the forces already fair on both sides, had scares on both sides, but the ‘bianconeri’ lacked offensive lucidity, already without the impetus of Chiesa and without ever being able to find Cristiano, who also opened his legs in a Sergio Oliveira’s powerful low shot that made it 2-2. Rabiot still wanted to say that the ‘Vecchia Signora’ wanted to live, but Porto resisted.
JUVENTUS : Szczesny; Square, Bonucci (De Ligt, m.75), Demiral, Alex Sandro; Chiesa (Bernardeschi, m.102), Arthur (Kulusevski, m.102), Rabiot, Ramsey (McKennie, m.75); Morata and Cristiano Ronaldo.
PORTO : Marchesín; Manafá, Mbemba, Pepe, Sanusi (Luis Díaz, m.71); Corona (Leite, m.118), Sergio Oliveira (Loum, m.118), Uribe (Grujic, m.90), Otávio (Sarr, m.61); Marega (Toni Martínez, m.106) and Taremi.
GOALS : 0-1, minute 19. Sergio Oliveira, from a penalty; 1-1, minute 49. Chiesa; 2-1, minute 63. Chiesa; 2-2, minute 114. Sergio Oliveira; 3-2, minute 116. Rabiot.
From television to the internet, Oliver switched his journey in digital media with the Highview Herald. After serving as a freelance journalist for popular media properties, he currently contributes his experience for Highview Herald by writing on variety of trending topics.
