Juventus power ahead of Porto
Porto (Portugal), Feb. 23: Croatian starlet Marko Pjaca and Dani Alves came off the bench to strike late as Juventus overcame 10-man Porto 20 in their Champions League last 16 first leg on Wednesday.
Porto hosted Juventus, the beaten 2015 finalists, looking for their first win in four meetings between the sides — and confident in their chances after a recent six-game winning run.
But the hosts endured a disastrous opening half at the Estadio do Dragao, former Inter Milan midfielder Alex Telles sent off for a second bookable offence in the 27th minute.
After seeing both Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala come close, Higuain notably denied on 39 minutes by an alert Iker Casillas, Massimiliano Allegri replaced Juan Cuadrado with Pjaca on 67 minutes.
The 21-year-old capitalised only six minutes later, starting a great move before firing past Casillas from 15 yards out.
Allegri replaced rightback Stephan Lichtsteiner with Alves immediately afterwards and the former Barcelona star scored with practically his first touch of the game to wrap up a precious win for the Turin giants.
“This team still has plenty of room for improvement but the lads showed great maturity tonight,” said Allegri.
“We’re entering a crucial period of the season and we need to approach it with enthusiasm, determination and be as clinical as possible.
“But we can’t believe 2-0 is enough to see us through. We have to broach the return as if it’s still nil-nil.” VARDY GIVES FOXES HOPE IN SEVILLA LOSS In Seville, Jamie Vardy’s first Champions League goal gave Leicester City a lifeline in their last 16 tie despite going down 2-1 to Sevilla in first leg.
Goals from Pablo Sarabia and Joaquin Correa had given Sevilla a deserved 2-0 lead, whilst Correa also saw a penalty saved by the inspired Kasper Schmeichel. However, despite Sevilla’s dominance, Schmeichel’s heroics and Vardy’s strike means the English champions are well in the tie ahead of the second leg at home on March 14.
The two sides couldn’t be in more contrasting form with Sevilla just three points off the top of La Liga, whilst Leicester face a relegation battle just a year after defying all the odds to win the Premier League.
And Sevilla boss Jorge Sampaoli lamented his side’s inability to make the gulf in class count in a more comprehensive advantage.
“It is difficult to imagine such a big difference (between the sides) in a Champions League game,” said Sampaoli.
“I am happy with how the game went because we had chances, but disappointed with the result because we deserved more.” — AFP