Sports

10-Man FC Porto Knock Juventus Out Of The Champions League

Published

4 years ago

March 10, 2021

The Bianconeri triumphed 3-2 on the night but bowed out at the last 16 stage on away goals after a dramatic encounter in Turin.

Andrea Pirlo said Cristiano Ronaldo was “fired up” for Tuesday night’s Champions League showdown with Porto.

“These are his games,” the Juventus coach told reporters. This wasn’t his game, though – not even close.

In the grand scheme of things, Ronaldo’s poor performance is a mere footnote in Juve’s tale of Champions League woe, which stretches all the way back to 1996.

They’ve lost five finals in the interim. Now, they’ve been eliminated in the last 16 for the second consecutive season. In 2018-19, they were dumped out in the quarters by Ajax.

It wasn’t meant to be like this. Not with Ronaldo. He’s Mr. Champions League. With him on board, a team that reached two finals in three seasons between 2015 and 2017 looked poised to take that agonising final step. Instead, they’re further away from the trophy than when he arrived.

Despite losing 2-1 to Porto in the first leg, Juve had tried valiantly to avoid even thinking about another early exit.

“It’s our duty to go through to the next round,” Juve director and former midfielder Pavel Nedved had told Sky Sport Italia beforehand. Instead, Juve are out of Europe and, this time around, they won’t even have the consolation prize of a Scudetto.

The Serie A title already looks lost, for the first time in 10 years, with Inter currently 10 points ahead of the third-placed Bianconeri at the top of the table. Even a possible Coppa Italia win – Juve meet Atalanta in the final – isn’t going to cut it for Pirlo.

Indeed, a penny for Andrea Agnelli’s thoughts right now. The Juventus president didn’t sanction a €340 million deal for Ronaldo to see his side knocked out of Europe by Ajax, Lyon and Porto.

No wonder the European Club Association chairman wants more games and guarantees for the big boys in a revamped Champions League; the Old Lady needs all the help she can get right now.

Sergio Oliveira Juventus Porto
Of course, the big question is what Agnelli will decide to do with Ronaldo and Pirlo? The former is a colossal strain on the club’s resources; the latter has failed to prove he can deliver the European glory Juve so sorely crave.

Sporting director Fabio Paratici insisted at the weekend that he retains full faith in the Pirlo project but it was telling that the rookie coach was asked on Monday if he felt his future depended on the outcome of the Porto game.

“If I thought so,” he told reporters, “I wouldn’t be here.” Who knows now, though, how long he’ll be at Juve? The same goes for Ronaldo, who must now be questioning whether he should see out the final year of his contract.

He remains a goalscoring machine but looks unsuited to Pirlo’s style of play. As in the first leg at the Dragao, the Portuguese superstar struggled to get into the game. Just as at the Dragao, it was Federico Chiesa – not Ronaldo – who dragged Juve back into the tie.

Juventus had performed pathetically in Porto, but Chiesa’s composed strike with just eight minutes to go secured the visitors a precious away goal.

It was wiped out just 18 minutes into Tuesday night’s return clash in Turin, with Sergio Oliveira coolly converting a penalty awarded for Merih Demiral’s clumsy challenge on Mehdi Taremi.

Consequently, Juve needed two goals just to force extra-time. They got them – thanks to the irrepressible Chiesa.

Ronaldo, to his credit, was involved in the equaliser, laying the ball off for Chiesa, who finished emphatically into the top-right corner of the Porto net.

Then, after Medhi Taremi had been stupidly sent off for booting the ball away while already on a booking, Chiesa levelled the tie on aggregate by rising at the back post to expertly guide home the most inviting of crosses from the excellent Juan Cuadrado.

Juve had numerous chances to win the game, even before it went to extra-time, and they were punished for their profligacy when Sergio struck again, this time with a long-range free kick that Wojciech Szczesny really should have saved.

That left Juve needing to win 4-2 to progress and Adrien Rabiot’s header with three minutes of extra time remaining gave the hosts renewed hope, but they could find no way past Pepe & Co. in the dying seconds despite intense pressure.

It just wasn’t their night. Or Ronaldo’s game.

And one wonders now whether it will be his last in the Champions League for Juve…