PORTO, Portugal, Feb 18, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Cristiano Ronaldo’s first game
for Juventus in his native Portugal ended in 2-1 defeat as FC Porto out-
played the Italians for much of Wednesday’s Champions League last-16, first
leg tie.
Such was Juve’s lacklustre performance that coach Andrea Pirlo claimed his
team handed victory to their hosts on “a silver platter”.
Iranian striker Mehdi Taremi put Porto ahead after just a minute at Estadio
do Dragao following a Rodrigo Bentancur error.
And Mali striker Moussa Marega added a second straight after the break.
But Federico Chiesa pulled a goal back with eight minutes to go to keep
Juventus afloat with the second leg in Turin on March 9.
“The approach was wrong from the first minute,” said Pirlo.
“When you concede a goal like this it’s normal that fear sets in, you lack
a bit of certainty.
“Porto are good at closing down and after that goal it was much more
difficult. We served them the match they wanted on a silver platter.
“Fortunately we scored an important goal through Chiesa and now we will
focus on the return leg.”
It was a below-par performance by Juventus,chasing their third Champions
League title and first in 25 years.
Record Champions League goal scorer Ronaldo, 36, drew a blank against a
side captained by his Portuguese international teammate Pepe, as the visitors
struggled to recover from their early blunder.
“We studied Juventus well,” said defender Pepe who won three Champions
League titles with Ronaldo at Real Madrid.
“We knew that we had to press hard to keep Juventus from playing. In these
type of games it’s difficult to concede goals at home, but we played a great
game.”
It was a shocking start for Juventus, with Wojciech Szczesny sending the
ball out to Bentancur, who passed back to the Polish goalkeeper despite
Taremi being just on front of goal.
The Iranian quickly pounced to prod past Szczesny for his first Champions
League goal.
Porto pressed forward with Juventus almost conceding a second on 23 minutes
as Szczesny cleared straight to Sergio Oliveira whose shot was deflected away
from goal.
To add to Andrea Pirlo’s woes captain Giorgio Chiellini limped off 10
minutes later with defender Merih Demiral coming off the bench.
Pirlo had juggled Juve’s defence with Leonardo Bonucci out injured with
Alex Sandro returning, playing alongside veteran Chiellini, Matthijs de Ligt
and Danilo.
Juve had to wait until four minutes before the break for their first shot
on goal with an Adrien Rabiot overhead kick cleared by Porto ‘keeper Agustin
Marchesin, but the offside flag had already been raised.
The Italians suffered another terrible start to the second half with Marega
picking up a Wilson Manafa cross to finish low past Szczesny.
Ronaldo had to wait until five minutes after the break to have a shot on
goal. Weston McKennie nodded the ball into the path of the Portuguese star,
whose weak effort was blocked.
However, Chiesa pulled Juventus back into the tie following a Rabiot run
down the right with a pull back for the Italian to finish off into the corner
of the net.
“The goal will give us strength for the second leg, and it will certainly
be another game,” said Chiesa.
It was the first goal conceded by Porto in the competition at home this
season for the former two-time winners.
Ronaldo had penalty appeals waved away after going down under a Sanusi
Zaidu challenge late as the hosts held on for their first win over Juventus
in five meetings.