Champions League: Juventus Primed to Get Past Plucky Porto

Juventus vs Porto

Juventus will have a bit of work to do to make it through to the Champions League quarter-finals. The Italian champions will head into their round-of-16 second leg with Porto down 2-1 after a sloppy first-leg performance.

However, a late away goal from Federico Chiesa has put them in a decent position to go through. They only need to win 1-0 or by two clear goals at home to progress.

But while the Champions League 2021 betting odds will be against Porto, the Portuguese giants have proven they can be a handful and will give the Old Lady all they can handle.

Talking Points

Juventus’ Morata rediscovering his best form

Juventus kept their dream of collecting a 10th consecutive Scudetto alive with an impressive 3-1 win over Lazio during the weekend.

Juve manager Andrea Pirlo made the shock decision to drop superstar Cristiano Ronaldo to the bench and started Alvaro Morata as the lone striker.

Luckily for him, that move paid off as Morata had a brilliant match. He set up Adrien Rabiot for Juventus’ first goal, then scored two more in the second half.

The Spanish striker had not started in Juve’s last four matches, a run which began in the first leg against Porto. That was even more surprising considering Morata has consistently created so many Champions League 2021 highlights. He is Juve’s top scorer in this year’s competition with six goals in seven appearances.

Alvaro Morata will be looking to step up for Juventus once again when they face Porto in the Champions League — Alvaro Morata celebrates scoring Juventus’ third goal against Lazio

But with three goals in his last two games, Pirlo has almost no choice but to start Morata alongside the well-rested Ronaldo.

Juventus need to beat Porto to make it through to the next round, but they will fancy their chances of doing so at home. They have won seven straight home games in Serie A and 10 of their last 11 at home in all competitions since their shock 3-0 defeat to Fiorentina in December.

Moreover, they have scored at least two goals in 10 of their last 11 league matches at the Allianz Stadium, with the lone exception being their goalless Coppa Italia second-leg draw against Inter last month.

Porto in their preferred situation

FC Porto will take a 2-1 lead into Turin after the Juve defence gifted their two strikers — Mehdi Taremi and Moussa Marega — two goals early in each half of the first leg. Thanks to that slight advantage, a draw of any sort would be enough to see Porto through.

Porto manager Sergio Conceicao will now be in a position to set his side up in their preferred playing style, which is to defend deep and strike quickly on the counterattack.

That counterattack, led by the dangerous Marega, could lead to some good goalscoring chances given Juve’s injury concerns at the back. Giorgio Chiellini and Matthijs de Ligt are both still out injured and Leonardo Bonucci just made his return against Lazio after a couple of weeks out.

With Juve’s top three centre-backs out, Pirlo had to start Merih Demiral and Sandro at centre-back against Lazio and could potentially be put in that position once more against Porto.

Porto are coming off a 2-0 win over Gil Vicente in Liga Nos. Taremi continued his fine form by supplying the assist to Porto’s second goal. Taremi now has three goals and two assists in his last six games.

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History

Prior to the first leg, Juventus had gone undefeated in their previous five European meetings with Porto. However, they are still unbeaten in both of their home games against the Portuguese. They won the second leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie in 2017 1-0 thanks to a penalty from Paulo Dybala.

Porto have played 15 times in Italy during European competitions but have just four wins with eight defeats. Their last win in Italy came in the 2016 Champions League play-off with Roma. They won 3-0 and went through 4-1 on aggregate.

Betting Tip

	Juventus vs Porto	Juventus Asian Handicap -1.00 @ 1.76
	March 10, 04:00 (GMT+8)

SBOTOP odds have Juventus installed as overwhelming 1.46 favourites to win the second leg, with Porto priced at 6.40 to beat the Old Lady once again. Meanwhile, a draw is 4.30.

Without a doubt, it would be a huge shock if Porto were to knock Juventus out of the competition. The Italian champions are similarly big 1.60 favourites to move on to the quarter-finals, while Porto are at 2.42.

Despite some injury concerns in defence, Juventus still should have too much quality for Porto, especially at home. With Ronaldo and Morata, they have more than enough firepower to get the goals they need to go through quite comfortably in the end.