Pjaca, Alves strikes lift Juve past depleted Porto
PORTO, Portugal: Croatian starlet Marko Pjaca and Dani Alves came off the bench to strike late as Juventus overcame 10-man Porto 2- 0 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 sixgame 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-yearold capitalised only six minutes later, starting a great move before firing past Casillas from 15 yards out.
Allegri replaced right- back 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.
Allegri was looking increasingly frustrated and replaced the ineffective Cuadrado with Pjaca on 67 minutes. The Croat seized the day minutes later, winning possession from a Marcano blunder inside the area to beat Casillas with his maiden Juventus goal.
Alves capped a forgettable night for the hosts when he chested down Alex Sandro’s delivery to fire off an angled shot that beat Casillas at his far post on 74 minutes. — AFP