Goals by Mehdi Taremi and Moussa Marega propelled Porto to their first victory against Juventus in the Champions League as they secured a 2-1 first-leg win against the Italian champions in their round-of-16 tie on Wednesday.
On a night when very little went Juventus’s way, Federico Chiesa’s late strike at least gave them something to take into the return leg in Turin on 9 March. Taremi pounced on a sloppy back pass after 63 seconds to fire in the opener that left Juventus rattled and they failed to create any clear chances before half-time.
Things got worse for Andrea Pirlo’s side when Marega blasted in Porto’s second goal 19 seconds into the second half. Juventus eventually mustered a response when Chiesa fired home a precious away goal with eight minutes remaining.
The winger’s strike ended Porto’s run of five consecutive clean sheets in the competition, and leaves the tie wide open ahead of the return leg. Juve impressed in the group stage by winning five games out of six, including a 3-0 victory at Barcelona.
But they got off to the worst start possible when Taremi anticipated Rodrigo Bentancur’s pass back to Wojciech Szczesny and slid in to shoot past the goalkeeper from close range. Juve were visibly knocked off their stride by the aggression of Porto’s pressing and were almost caught out again when Szczesny cleared the ball straight to Sérgio Oliveira, whose shot was deflected wide.
Matters were made worse for the Turin club when their captain, Giorgio Chiellini, limped off injured after 34 minutes. Porto were even quicker out of the blocks in the second half when Marega got on the end of a Wilson Manafá cut-back to score the second goal.
Szczesny stuck out a hand to stop an Oliveira shot from making it three, but the visitors finally came to life in the final 20 minutes. Agustín Marchesín had to scramble to palm away a deflected Chiesa shot, before the Italy international raced on to a pass to cushion a finish into the corner.
The goal made Chiesa the first Juventus player other than Cristiano Ronaldo to score in the knockout stages of the Champions League since Blaise Matuidi in April 2018. Ronaldo, the competition’s all-time top scorer, was largely kept quiet on his return to his home country, before having an appeal for a penalty waved away in stoppage time.