Porto 2-1 Juventus: Player ratings as hopeless Juve deservedly beaten in Champions League

Juventus succumb to Porto on Wednesday
Juventus succumb to Porto on Wednesday / MIGUEL RIOPA/Getty Images
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Goals from Mehdi Taremi and Moussa Marega were enough to seal a first leg win over Juventus for Porto in the Champions League round of 16 on Wednesday evening.

Inside two minutes the home side took a shock lead after a horrific mistake from Rodrigo Bentancur. The midfielder played a lazy ball back to Wojciech Szczęsny which was preyed on by Taremi, who slid in ahead of the outrushing goalkeeper to open the scoring.

And that goal proved to be a tempo setter for the rest of the first half as Porto, to put it bluntly, dominated Juventus - utilising a high press (ooohhh fancy football talk) to great effect and penning La Vecchia Signora back in their own half.

The start of the second half proved to be a karma copy of the start of the first, as a napping Juve backline were caught out by the Porto attack, allowing Marega to double the home side's lead.

And like the first half too, the Dragões controlled proceedings thereafter, restricting the visitors to Danilo strikes on goal from 40 yards out...which, no, isn't a good thing. In the 83rd minute Juve finally decided to shoot from inside the box and they ended up bloody scoring, courtesy of Federico Chiesa after a surprisingly good bit of play from Adrien Rabiot.

Here are 90min's Juventus player ratings:


Juventus player ratings

1. Goalkeeper and defenders

Chiellini hobbled off injured
Chiellini hobbled off injured / Quality Sport Images/Getty Images

Wojciech Szczęsny (GK) - 3/10 - Left out to dry by Bentancur for the first goal, and should've done better for the second.

Danilo (RB) - 3/10 - We'll put it this way, Juve really missed Juan Cuadrado on Wednesday evening.

Matthijs de Ligt (CB) - 3/10 - The youngster endured a tough night at the office, and rarely dealt well with the Porto press.

Giorgio Chiellini (CB) - 3/10 - Like De Ligt he struggled to play around the Porto high press, and then went off injured in the first half. Not good.

Alex Sandro (LB) - 2/10 - A shell of the player he was when he first joined Juventus from Porto (ironically) - the left side of Juve's defence was targeted by the home side for a reason.


2. Midfielders

Bentancur was terrible on Wednesday
Bentancur was terrible on Wednesday / MIGUEL RIOPA/Getty Images

Federico Chiesa (RM) - 6/10 - Actually had a shot on goal in the first half, and then actually scored a goal in the second half. It was good goal too.

Rodrigo Bentancur (CM) - 2/10 - To say the very least, the midfielder was at fault for the opener. To say the very least. Things didn't get much better for Bentancur after that.

Adrien Rabiot (CM) - 3/10 - For the first 82 minutes Rabiot was hopeless, but then he took a notion to run for the first time in the whole game in the 83rd minute and set up a goal. Despite the assist though, it was still pretty terrible performance from the Frenchman.

Weston McKennie (LM) - 3/10 - Ran around...but usually aimlessly and usually without the ball.


3. Forwards

Frustrating evening for Ronaldo
Frustrating evening for Ronaldo / MIGUEL RIOPA/Getty Images

Dejan Kulusevski (ST) - 2/10 - Waaaayyyyy too sloppy in possession throughout.

Cristiano Ronaldo (ST) - 4/10 - I mean, what can you do when your central midfielders can't play a simple pass? Nothing, that's what.


4. Substitutes

Merih Demiral - 3/10 - Came on for the injured Chiellini and was caught napping for Porto's second goal. Nice one.

Alvaro Morata - 5/10 - Juventus looked a lot better when he came on. Which isn't saying much, but still.

Aaron Ramsey - 5/10 - Had a similar impact to that of Morata.


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