Licking the wounds has begun for Juventus. The team of trainer Andrea Pirlo was eliminated early in the Champions League for the third time on Tuesday-evening. After Ajax in 2019 and Olympique Lyon in 2020, it was now FC Porto that Juventus was in charge. After a 2-1 away defeat at home, a 3-2 victory after extra time was not enough for a place in the quarter-finals. Matthijs de Ligt can hardly believe that he and his team failed to put the ten men from Porto on the rack within ninety minutes.
Juventus started weakly in the eighth final and was defected in the first half hour by the number three of the Portuguese Primeira Liga. “This is a very heavy blow”, responded a visibly disappointed De Ligt after the elimination opposite Sky Italia. “If you play against ten men for so long, it hurts if you leave this way.” Juventus fell 0-1 after more than fifteen minutes of play, but straightened out in the second half, thanks to a red card from Mehdi Taremi, and came back to 2-1.
Things went wrong in extra time, when Sérgio Oliveira again took his team in tow from a dead game moment. The same Oliveira put Porto in the lead from the spot in the first half after a foul by Merih Demiral on Taremi. “Of course this game will influence this season”, De Ligt continues. “We want to be there in the Champions League, but now we have already been eliminated in March. This is very difficult for us. We started not bad, but we started playing football too late. ”
Due to an injury, De Ligt was initially not in the game selection, but was brought to the team by Pirlo shortly before the game. The defender came in for Leonardo Bonucci after 75 minutes of play and even acted as an extra striker in the final phase. Juventus managed to take the match after Oliveira’s 2-2 through Adrien Rabiot, but after the 2-1 from the first leg, a 3-2 victory was not enough.
The elimination is the next blow in an already disappointing season for the reigning national champion. In Serie A, Juventus is ten points behind leader Internazionale and there seems to be an end to a series of nine national titles in a row. Juventus will still play the final of the Coppa Italia against Atalanta on 19 May.