22 February 2017
It’s advantage Juve at the midway point of their Champions League last 16 tie against Porto thanks to two minutes of magic in the second half, in which Marko Pjaca and Dani Alves, both introduced to the field of play just moments earlier, scored a pair of crucial away goals at the Estadio do Dragao that put Massimiliano Allegri’s men in control ahead of March’s return leg in Turin.
If the first few minutes were spent containing early Porto pressure, in which Yacine Brahimi whipped a free-kick a few yards over the crossbar, the visitors would soon find their feet and threaten in the final third themselves, Gonzalo Higuain collecting Paulo Dybala’s through ball in the box before being tackled at the point of pulling the trigger.
With Juve now on the ascendancy, they were given a further boost on 26 minutes, when Alex Telles picked up two yellow cards within the space of 60 seconds to leave Porto playing over an hour with just ten men.
The Bianconeri would immediately look to exploit their numerical advantage and very nearly broke the deadlock, Juan Cuadrado firing whiskers wide from distance before Sami Khedira came just as close with a firm header within the box.
Then on 39 minutes, Higuain saw his shot take a wicked deflection off Felipe’s leg, forcing Iker Casillas into a smart save to prevent the ball squirming into the bottom corner and on the stroke of half-time the experienced stopper had his upright to thank for denying Dybala’s powerful, left-footed strike.
Juve started the second period as they ended the first, stepping up their search for a breakthrough goal, Dybala testing Casillas from within the box before Khedira hammered a volley just a couple of feet wide of the top corner.
Porto were defending well to keep the scores level, but there was nothing they could do about two breath-taking minutes, in which the visitors rubberstamped victory thanks to two goals scored by two players who’d been on the field for just a matter of minutes.
First Pjaca, who had come on for Cuadrado, fired into the bottom corner to register his maiden strike for Juventus. Then, Dani Alves, on the pitch for less than 60 seconds after replacing Stephan Lichtsteiner, tucked home at the far post to put Juve well and truly in control of the tie they will look to wrap up in three weeks’ time in Turin.
