Thursday night saw the latest edition of the knockout stage of the Champions League. The evening showcased the 1st leg of two ties. The first between Portuguese side FC Porto and The Old Lady, Juventus. The second tie was between Sevilla and surprise participants Leicester City.
Heading into the game both teams were in the phenomenal form which set the stage for a potentially thrilling game. Porto was on a 6 win streak meanwhile, Juventus were searching for their 8th successive victory. Domestically Porto finds themselves closing the gap with Benfica at the top of the Portuguese Primeira and it’s no surprise to anyone that once again The Old Lady are setting the pace in Serie A.
Porto manager, Nuno Espirito Santo adopted quite a cautious approach to the match, clearly weary of the quality of the Juventus attack. The Italian side fielded what has come to be known this season as their best 11. A team filled with pace and agile players in the attack and that brick wall of a defense – debatably the best defense in the world in my opinion.
Despite Juve being obvious favorites, FC Porto started the game very positively, refusing to sit back and simply defend. This only increased the level of noise within the the stadium which must have been massively motivational for the home side. However this positive start was cut short by a moment of stupidity. In the 25th minute Alex Telles recklessly went clashing into Juan Cuadrado and in the process earning himself a yellow card. But it was the 27th minute where the tone of the game changed when Telles again made an ugly challenge, this time on Lichtsteiner and so earning himself a very very early red card. From this point on FC Porto lost all momentum and Juventus took hold of the game. Credit has got to be given to Porto that although they didn’t attack much at all they did defend extremely well and it’s just a shame that Alex Telles’ moments of madness ruined their chances in the game. Porto managed to hold on until well into the second half where in the 72nd minute Juve had their breakthrough from a Pjaca placed shot. Moments later Dani Alves added a second for Juventus and that was that. Although 2 – 0 isn’t a massive lead, as the second leg is in Turin I can’t see any way back for FC Porto.
Leicester City travelled to Sevilla in bizarre form. In the Premier League Leicester find themselves in a horrific position but in Europe I’d say it’s reasonable to say they’ve surprised most of us. Sevilla on the other hand are having one of the best seasons in recent years, situated in 3rd place in La Liga above Atletico Madrid. In Europe they’ve been in reasonable form but they were no match for Juventus in the group stage.
Sevilla, the home side started the game very strongly and in fact earned themselves a penalty in only the 14th minute. An appalling piece of defending as Wes Morgan hacked down Joaquin Correa in the penalty area. Thankfully if there’s any player that Leicester can rely on it’s probably Kasper Schmeichel and he got them out of trouble here with a good save. Sevilla’s persistence paid off as they found themselves 2 – 0 up midway into the second half. It looked as if the tie was beginning to slip away from Leicester but in the 73rd that man, Jamie Vardy came up with a goal to make the game 2 -1. On the night it’s a loss for Leicester but they’re far from out of the tie just yet. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to see them scrape a 1 – 0 win at the King Power to send them through to the next round. But only time will tell.
