Porto v Juventus: Champions League round of 16, first leg – live! | Football

Peep! That’s your thing for the first half, which got off to the worst possible start for Juventus when Mehdi Taremi pounced on a Rodrigo Bentancur mistake to score an opportunistic goal. Juve have been surprisingly slow and already look genuinely devoid of ideas. I suspect we will see a change or two from Andrea Pirlo in no time. It has been very comfortable for Porto, whose defense has been very confident.

45 + 1 min: Ronaldo tries to run into Porto’s penalty area from the left, but is intercepted by the ball.

45 min: Ronaldo wins his team a corner after one of those excursions. Bentancur’s delivery is heading clear, despite Ronaldo’s best efforts to get to the ball.

44 min: We are almost at half-time and Cristiano Ronaldo has only had one touch in the Porto penalty area. He’s getting frustrated too, dropping deeper and deeper in an attempt to get more time on the ball.

41 min: Another free kick, from the same area. The ball is sent back towards the far post and it breaks Adrien Rabiot, whose kick from above is saved by Marchesin, who clears it. It was a spectacular-looking endeavor, but it lacked real venom. It was also Juve’s first shot on goal.

40 min: Juve free kick, deflected to the right after a foul by Sergio Oliveira on Matthijs De Ligt. Bentancur finally gets it right and takes out Cristiano Ronaldo at the far post. His head butt down doesn’t bother Marchesin.

39 min: Juve corner. The ball is sent to the Porto penalty area, where Agustín Marchesin clears with his fists.

36 min: It is not the first, second or third time in this half that Juve has tried to take Cristiano Ronaldo out with a long diagonal pass raised to the corner. Porto clear, again … and one suspects that their excellent defenders keep clearing such deliveries all night.

34 min: Substitution at Juventus: Giorgio Chiellini out, Merih Demiral in. I have no idea what’s wrong with Chiellini, who didn’t seem to be struggling with any obvious injuries. Alex Sandro takes the captain’s armband.

32 min: Porto have 11 men behind the ball as Juve tries to break through. The Italian team will have a lot of work to do: this defense is incredibly disciplined.

29 min: Juve plays a ball from deep towards Ronaldo, but it is hit in the air on the edge of the Porto area.

28 min: Zaido Sanusi gallops down the left touchline and Bentancur pushes the ball. This time he does not get a free kick and harangues the referee at length. Karma, as they say, is a whore.

26 min: Pepe steps in to clear the ball after a Juventus attack with Cristiano Ronaldo and Tyler McKinnie that collides with a blue and white wall of resistance on the edge of Porto’s penalty area.

25 min: The camera cuts to Andrea Pirlo, standing in his technical area. The poker face is gone, he seems genuinely concerned and I don’t blame him. His Juventus team was terrible in the first 25 minutes.

22 min: A diabolical clearance from Szczesny flies straight to Sergio Oliveira, about 30 meters from Juve’s goal. He returns the ball with interest, and his shot from the goal clears Matthia De Ligt decisively. Nothing leaves the next corner. Juve is Really fighting in front of the Porto high press.

20 minutes: From undercooked to overcooked passes: Rodrigo Bentancur tries to get Cristiano Ronaldo out with a cross pass to the touchline, but sends the ball into the stands. The Uruguayan needs to align his sights.

18 min: Zaido Sanussi wins a free kick after falling and yelling loudly near the touchline, with Danilo close by. Juve’s right-back proclaims his innocence without little justification, laughing at the referee for falling in love with Sanusi’s fouls.

15 minutes: Alex Sandro galloped down the left wing before sending a cross pass to the far post. Federico Chiesa makes good volley contact but his effort is taken to a corner. Moments after that has been taken short (more or less), Juve are flagged for offside when the ball is sent into the Porto penalty area.

13 min: Porto wins a free kick, deflected to the left, midway into the Juve half. They earn a corner, which Sergio Oliveira falls short. The ball is then played across to Chancel Mbemba, whose terrible first touch knocks the ball out of play for a Juve throw-in. It’s like watching two pub teams!

11 min: The clowning continues as Juventus players Adrien Rabiot and Dejan Kulusevski collide with each other, the young forward comes out worse. At any moment we can expect to see a couple of Juve backroom team members walking across the field carrying an extremely large glass panel.

9 min: Juventus players still look a bit shocked after that initial setback. They are playing at a tremendously pedestrian pace and Cristiano Ronaldo has barely touched the ball yet.

5 minutes: On the touchline, Juve manager Andrea Pirlo is sporting his best poker face, but he must be furious with his Uruguayan midfielder. Everything he was doing on the edge of the six-yard box when Szczesny was in possession is anyone’s guess, but his regrettable pass back to the goalkeeper immediately after receiving the ball will have infuriated his coach.

2 minutes: That is an absolute surprise from Juve. His goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesney, passed the ball about five meters to Rodrigo Bentancur on the edge of the penalty area, who quickly returned it to him. However, he did not fully cook his shot, allowing Taremi to steal and contest the ball for 50 percent, block the goalkeeper’s punt attempt and send it to the back of the net.

Hosts lead! With just over a minute left on the clock, Mehdi Taremi scores for Porto!

1 minute: Juventus roll the ball by stroking the ball in its own half before moving it forward.

Not so long now: Carlos Del Carro and his linesmen are the first to take the field, followed by Juventus players wearing orange jerseys underneath their black and white tracksuits. His shorts and socks are also orange. Those from Porto wear blue and white striped shirts, blue shorts and white socks.

Epe and Giorgio Chiellini exchange pennants and a handshake in the center circle and the game is about to begin. First, there is time for a warm hug between Portugal and former Real Madrid teammates Pepe and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Some pre-game talks: Juventus may be a huge favorite, but they are unlikely to get away with this tie. The Porto defense conceded just three goals in the group stage, all of them in their opening game against Manchester City.

Interestingly, Francisco Conceicao is on the bench for them tonight. The 18-year-old winger is the son of manager Sergio Conceicao and made his debut against Boavista last weekend.

Port: Marchesin, Manafa, Mbemba, Pepe, Sanusi, Uribe, Otavio, Oliveira, Corona, Taremi, Marega

Juventus: Szczesny, Danilo, De Ligt, Chiellini, Alex Sandro, Rabiot, Bentancur, McKennie, Kulusevski, Chiesa, Ronaldo

Referee tonight: Expect Italian accusations of pro-Iberian bias if all goes wrong for Juve tonight, as Carlos del Cerro leads a Spanish team off the match officials in Porto.

“Porto is different from us,” said the Juve coach. “In the league they are more offensive, while in Europe they are more cautious. We try to play differently, but sometimes we also have to defend.

“The Champions League is a unique competition. There are so many teams fighting to win, everyone wants it, and it really depends on when you face the teams. It is important to be mentally prepared. “

“We will give Juventus problems, since Porto also has something in their DNA,” said the local coach during the pre-match press conference. “We have a winning mentality regardless of the opponent. We must be aware that our approach has to change at different moments of the game, always looking for the positive result ”.

On the threat of Cristiano Ronaldo. “Cristiano can decide a game at any time and in the last third he is a fabulous player,” he said. “The best in the world without a doubt. We have to be solid, compact and cohesive. You have to understand what space Cristiano, Morata, Kulusevski or whoever plays in front wants and deny it.

Juventus team early news

With full-back Juan Cuadrado out with a muscle injury, Danilo and Alex Sandro are expected to hold Juventus to four against their former club. Having missed the last two games for his team, Leonardo Bonucci has not been able to recover in time for this match, which means that Giorgio Chiellini will almost certainly join Mattijs De Ligt as central defender. Aaron Ramsey, Arthur and Paulo Dybala also seem to miss out on this opportunity. Cristiano Ronaldo will start up front for the visitors, but reports from Italy suggest that Álvaro Morata could be eliminated by Dejan Kulusevski, a 20-year-old Swede of Macedonian origin.

Porto team news

Sergio Conceicao is left without full-backs Nanu and Saido Sanusi, in a state of affairs that causes WIlson Manafa and Malang Sarr to be called up as substitutes for the four defenders led by our old friend Pepe. Midfielder Otavio is also absent with a soft tissue injury.

The champions of Portugal and Italy go head-to-head in Porto in the first leg of the tie, Juventus being the big favorites to win. They come into this match after a defeat at the hands of Napoli last weekend, while their hosts have drawn their last four matches on the home front. Kick-off at Estadio do Dragao is at 8pm (GMT), but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and preparation.