Juventus grab precious away goal as Porto win 2-1 in Champions League showdown

Juventus grab precious away goal as Porto win 2-1 in Champions League showdown

- FC Porto vs Juventus first leg meeting in the Champions League Round of 16 ended in a 2-1 defeat for the Serie A giants

- The hosts looked good on the night, but they however conceded a late away goal

- Juventus will hope they can overturn the result when they meet again in the second leg

Juventus were desperate to return to winning ways during their Wednesday night, February 17, trip to Estadio do Dragao, having suffered a defeat in the hands of Napoli at the weekend.

However, Cristiano Ronaldo and co. were unable to leave a mark against the Portuguese giants as they fell to another defeat in just days.

Porto wasted no time to take the an early lead during the encounter, with Mehdi Taremi firing the hosts into the lead just a minute into the kick off.

Taremi capitalised on an unbelievable blunder by Wojciech Szczesny and Rodrigo Bentacur to score the opener, with the Porto star making no mistake from close range.

Read also

Angry Neymar makes stunning statement after Barca were handed penalty against PSG which Messi scored

Things went from bad to worse for Juve in the 35th minute when skipper Giorgio Chiellini limped off the pitch with what seemed as a calf injury.

The visitors went close to an equaliser in the dying minutes of the half after Adrien Rabiot's overhead shot was met with a spectacular save from Agustin Matches in who was up to the task.

The hosts doubled their advantage just moments after the break, with Moussa Marega making it 2-0, with the striker making the best of Manafa's assist.

Porto should have put the game to bed in the 52nd minute, but midfielder Oliveira fluffed his golden chance.

Juventus grab precious away point as Porto win 2-1 in Champions League showdown
Porto vs Juventus ended in favour of the hosts. Photo: Manuel Alvarez
Source: Getty Images

Juve had a number of opportunities to draw at least one back shortly after, but had to wait until the 82nd minute to finally score a crucial away goal through Federico Chiesa who was brilliantly set up by Rabiot as it ended 2-1 in favour of the hosts.

Read also

Jubilation as Benzema, Kroos inspire Real Madrid to crucial win over La Liga rivals amid tough title chase

The Italian giants will now be looking to making amends during the second leg to be played in Turin for a chance to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that Paris Saint Germain could be without their sensational winger Neymar when they host Barcelona at the Parc Des Princes in the second leg of their rounds of 16 clash next month.

The Brazilian angrily slammed the referee's decision to award the Catalans a penalty after Layvin Kurzawa was said to have tripped Frenkie De Jong earlier in the game.

Lionel Messi stepped up to convert the spot-kick which gave the Catalans the lead in the 27th minute and the 29-year-old posted a comment on Twitter saying 'joke that penalty'.

Babajide is a digital publishing expert, an avid sports content thinker, researcher and writer. He is a graduate of Guidance and Counselling, having bagged his B.SC (ED) from the Ekiti State University. He can be reached on Twitter @JideOrevba

Source: Legit.ng

Online view pixel