Unfortunately for the Bianconeri faithful, Juventus were once again eliminated from the Champions League round of 16 at the hands of a supposedly inferior opponent.
Porto entered the second leg in Turin with an advantage due to their 2-1 win in the first leg, and they extended it with a goal from the spot.
Federico Chiesa’s brilliant second half brace dragged the Old Lady back on level terms, but they were unable to find a winner within the 90 minutes, and a 10-men Porto side labored its way to extra-time.
With just five minutes separating us from the penalty shootouts, Sergio Oliveira’s freekick broke the black and white hearts, and Adrien Rabiot’s late goal wasn’t enough to overturn the result, as it ended 4-4 on aggregate, and the Portuguese progressed thanks to the away goal rule.
Whilst there are so many conclusions to be taken from Juve’s disappointing European run, we will leave it for another day, and focus essentially on what we learned from the match itself.
Demiral situation explained
With Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini and Matthijs de Ligt all coming from injuries, Merih Demiral was the only center back who was fit enough to play for 90 minutes and beyond.
The Turkish international has been asking for more playing time, but he seemed to be the lowest on Andrea Pirlo’s pecking among the four defenders.
Whilst the 23-year-old undoubtedly possesses unlimited potential – and he managed to display it at times – he remains a far from a finished article, and still has a lot of work to do so he can be considered as the rightful heir for Giorgio Chiellini and his predecessors.
The former Sassuolo man showed his rashness when he gifted Porto a penalty kick with a needless challenge on Mehdi Taremi, and looked uncomfortable when dealing with Moussa Marega.
This type of poor performance explains why Demiral is still at the bottom of the defensive list for Pirlo.
Chiesa’s playground
Since the beginning of the campaign, Chiesa has been one of the most consistent players at Pirlo’s disposal.
But whilst the former Fiorentina man might struggle at times against the packed Italian defenses, the Champions League might just be his type of competition.
As we once mentioned, the winger is just deadly when facing a four-man defense, as he proves to be a complete menace for the opposing full back, and that is exactly what happened yesterday.
Therefore, expect the 23-year-old to continue to produce on big European nights like these, especially against the sides that play in a much more progressive style than the average Serie A team.
Ronaldo’s nature revealed
Well, there you have it folks, Cristiano Ronaldo is a living, breathing human after all.
The Portuguese legend was left out of the starting formation against Lazio on Saturday, as he was reportedly not fully fit, and Tuesday night came to confirm that the superstar was far from his best form.
As per custom, everyone was waiting for CR7 to deliver on yet another glorious European time, but this time it wasn’t meant to be.
This doesn’t mean that the 36-year-old is finished, nor should it cancel out his previous strong showings throughout the campaign, but it merely proves that Ronaldo is a mortal like the rest of us, and therefore he should be expected to have off-nights like these.
Taking into account his age as well as the overpacked schedule, maybe it is time to start expecting a little less from one of the greatest players of all time.
