Porto Stuns Ronaldo and Juventus At Home

One can certainly agree that Italian side Juventus is a giant of European football with all the major titles they have won in the past and all of the appearances in the Champion league. However, that is not an excuse to sleep on Portuguese powerhouse FC Porto who came into their own as a powerhouse in the late 1980's and on winning two Champions League Trophies (86-87 & 2003-04), A UEFA Supercup (1987), a UEFA Cup (2002-03) and a UEFA Europa League title (2010-11). Coming into this game, the two sides had only met a total of six times with Porto only have one win and a draw against the Italian powerhouse. They are definitely a team not to be taken lightly and that is the very mistake that Juventus made right from the very first minute of the game after a poor clearance from Juventus Goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny ended up finding Iranian international Mehdi Taremi who buried it right in the back of the net to give Porto the early 1 to 0 lead. Porto did not let up and they were not going to be intimidated by Ronaldo as they kept him at bay for the first half minimizing his chances on goal. Juventus had some chances, but Porto's defense was frustrating them as they went into halftime finding themselves trailing against a team that theoretically they should be beating. 

The second half of the game started out much like the first half did, but this time Porto struck first and they did it fast. As soon as the referee blew the whistle, Porto moved the ball deep with some great passes including one from Wilson Manafá who surgically found Moussa Marega who slipped it just past Szczesny to go up 2 to 0 to start the half. Juventus's defense was caught sleeping and they paid for it dearly and now Andrea Pirlo was left wondering how they could come back from this to try and safe face for the second leg. Much like the first half, Porto kept attacking Juventus, but they did a great job of coming back and playing defense when they needed to and kudos to them for keeping Ronaldo limited in his chances on net as they were clearly frustrating the Portuguese legend. Porto's last great effort on net came in the 74TH minute when Sérgio Oliveira rocketed one that challenged Szczesny, but he had no problem making the save. There was a glimpse of hope however for Juventus in the 82ND minute when Adrien Rabiot brilliantly crossed the ball to the top of the box for Federico Chiesa who one times it right into the back of the net. While Juventus may have walked out of this game 2-1 losers, they scored the all important away goal which now gives them an advantage heading into the second leg of the series. So now Sérgio Conceição is tasked with figuring out how Porto can steal one back in Turin. It was a hard decision to come up with a player of the game because I wanted to award to the Porto defense, but I decided to give it to Federico Chiesa for the all important away goal.