PORTO RUINS RONALDO’S RETURN
PORTO, Portugal (AFP) — Cristiano Ronaldo’s first game for Juventus in his native Portugal ended in 2-1 defeat as FC Porto outplayed the Italians for much of Wednesday’s Champions League last-16, first leg tie.
Such was Juve’s lackluster performance that coach Andrea Pirlo claimed his team handed victory to its hosts on “a silver platter.”
The approach was wrong from the first minute.
Iranian striker Mehdi Taremi put Porto ahead after just a minute at Estadio do Dragao following a Rodrigo Bentancur error.
And Mali striker Moussa Marega added a second straight after the break.
But Federico Chiesa pulled a goal back with eight minutes to go to keep Juventus afloat with the second leg in Turin on 9 March. “The approach was wrong from the first minute,” Pirlo said. “When you concede a goal like this it’s normal that fear sets in, you lack a bit of certainty.
“Porto are good at closing down and after that goal it was much more difficult. We served them the match they wanted on a silver platter.
“Fortunately we scored an important goal through Chiesa and now we will focus on the return leg.”
It was a below-par performance by Juventus, chasing its third Champions League title and first in 25 years.
Record Champions League goalscorer Ronaldo, 36, drew a blank against a side captained by his Portuguese international teammate Pepe, as the visitors struggled to recover from their early blunder. “We studied Juventus well,” said defender Pepe who won three Champions League titles with Ronaldo at Real Madrid.
“We knew that we had to press hard to keep Juventus from playing. In these type of games it’s difficult to concede goals at home, but we played a great game.”
It was a shocking start for Juventus, with Wojciech Szczesny sending the ball out to Bentancur, who passed back to the Polish goalkeeper despite Taremi being just on front of goal.
The Iranian quickly pounced to prod past Szczesny for his first Champions League goal. become,” added Osaka, whose previous Grand Slam successes came at Flushing Meadows in 2018 and last year, and Melbourne in 2019.
The victory left Williams, who won her last major in Melbourne in 2017, stranded on 23 Grand Slam titles as she strives to match Margaret Court’s all-time record.
Since winning while pregnant in Australia four years ago, Williams has lost four Slam finals, including the controversial and heated 2018 US Open decider against Osaka.
“The difference today was errors. I made so many errors,” said the American veteran,