Ronaldo In Tears As Juventus Suffer Champions League Elimination At Home To 10-man Fc Porto
Italian giants Juventus have been dealt a heavy blow in their chase for European honours after being stunned at home by a 10-man FC Porto side.
The Bianconeri who entered the second leg with a task at hand to overcome having suffered a 2 – 1 defeat in the first leg, made matters worst when they granted Porto a generous opportunity to take them out by conceding a penalty in the 17th minute which was deftly converted by Sérgio Oliveira to hand Porto the lead with 19 minutes played.
That lead would last the entire 45 minutes before Federico Chiesa halved the deficit four minutes into the second half to give Juventus hope of a comeback after Ronaldo teed him up. One goal quickly turned two soon after Porto had a man sent off. It was Chiesa again who made sure Juventus made maximum benefit of the numerical advantage by powering a Juan Cuadrado’s cross past Augustin Marchesin.
Neither side could afford the winning goal in 90 minutes with Juventus coming closest only to have Alvaro Morata’s injury time strike ruled out for offside thus taking the tie into extra time.
Porto despite being a man down was the side that went close to drawing some magic in the first 15 minutes of extra time. Marega however failed to steer his close-range header past Szczesny. The moment of magic came with just five minutes of the 30 minutes extra time to play when Sérgio Oliveira fired in a free kick that flew past Szczesny despite the keeper getting a hand to it.
Juventus responded immediately with Adrien Rabiot rising highest to power a Federico Bernardeschi corner into the top-left corner leaving Marchesin powerless before having a last minute penalty appeal waved away by the referee. That came rather too late as Porto held on to close out the match 3 – 2 to tie it 4 – 4 on aggregate. That was all that they needed to advance courtesy the away goal rule.
This means Juventus have now failed to go past the last 16 in two consecutive seasons having failed to advance against Lyon in last season’s altered competition. That match too saw Lyon advance via away goal after the tie ended 2 – 2 aggregate. Juventus have also now failed to go past the quarter-finals in four seasons having previously being finalist in two of the three seasons prior to the 2017/18 season.
By: Clifford Adumbire | myactiveonline.com
