Ten-man Porto FC of Portugal are through to the quarter-finals of the Uefa Champions League (UCL) after dumping out Juventus on away goals rule despite a 2-3 loss at the Olympic stadium in Turin.
Porto’s two goals, both scored by Sergio Oliveira, meant they netted two away goals, one more than Juventus scored in their reverse 2-1 loss in Portugal three weeks ago.
Juventus have now stumbled at this stage of the competition in consecutive seasons, also losing to Lyon on away goals last year.
The Italian giants threatened early through Alvaro Morata. The Spanish striker got a header off Juan Caudrado’s cross but Agustin Marchesin, Porto goalkeeper, made a brilliant save to deny the former Chelsea man.
Porto improved afterwards and went ahead through a penalty kick won when Demiral brought down Mehdi Taremi in the box. Sergio Oliveira stepped up to send Wojciech Szczęsny, Juventus goalkeeper, the wrong way for a 1-0 lead to the visitors.
Despite enjoying over 60% possession, the Italian champions could not sort out their attack and Porto went into the break with a huge chance of an upset in Turin.
However, the Old Lady of Turin sprang to life at the start of the second period and finally found a way back into the encounter with the equalizer three minutes into the half. Cristiano Ronaldo latched on to a long pass and laid it off for Federico Chiesa to curl into the far corner to restore parity.
Porto’s night started to fall apart and Taribi, the penalty hero, became the villain with two yellow cards in two minutes to reduce his team to ten men.
Juve capitalized on their man advantage and Chiesa, again, found the back of the net with a header at the back post from Caudrado’s cross moments after hitting the post to give Andre Pirlo’s men a 2-1 lead.
Ronaldo and his teammates continued the onslaught on Porto’s defence that had gone deep and had nine men behind the ball most times, but the Portuguese superstar headed wide and Chiesa was superbly denied by Marchesin. Caudrado also hit the bar with a thunderous angled drive from the edge of the area but Porto held on for an extra time.
An uneventful extra time period was sparked to life in the last five minutes when Jesus Corona capitalized on a bad wall and poor goalkeeping to allow Porto’s 30-yard free-kick to find its way into the back of the net. Adrien Rabiot restored Juventus’ lead on the night but the former UCL winners could not find the decisive winning goal as Porto triumphed on the away goals rule to the wide celebration from the travelling contingent.
In the other match of the night, Borussia Dortmund also booked their place in the quarter-finals of the UCL after finishing off Sevilla at the Signal Iduna Park stadium as both teams played an entertaining 2-2 draw with braces from Erling Haaland, Dortmund’s free-scoring goal machine, and Sevilla’s Youssef El-Nesyri.
Haaland, the 19-year-old Norwegian striker, scored in each half — first from an acute angle and then a penalty kick — to set the record of the quickest to reach 20th UCL goal, achieving the feat in just 14 games.
He also becomes the youngest ever player to score in six consecutive UCL appearances and has now scored 30 goals from 29 games in all competitions this season.
RESULTS
- Borussia Dortmund (3) 2-2 (2) Sevilla (Borussia Dortmund win 5-4 on aggregate)
- Juventus (1) 3-2 (2) FC Porto (Tie ends 4-4 on aggregate, Porto wins on away goals rule)
By Jonathan Ledger/TheCable
