Ronaldo's faded match
For Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the best footballers in the world in recent years, the playoffs of the current season of the Champions League started, to put it mildly, not in the best way.
And if the defeat of Barcelona by PSG could still be imagined, then Juventus was considered the clear favorite of the confrontation with Porto and, it seemed, should have won.
It is no coincidence that even Ronaldo himself, on the eve of the game at home, wrote on Twitter that it could become for his team the beginning of the path to the final.
The statistics of head-to-head meetings were on the side of the Turin people.
In four previous matches in the Champions League, they won three victories over an opponent with one draw.
However, the reported confrontation began for them worse than you can imagine.
The hosts managed to open an account in the second minute.
At the same time, Rodrigo Bentancourt actually acted as a co-author of the goal.
The Uruguayan gave an extremely imprudent pass to Wojciech Szczęsny, and Mehdi Taremi was ahead of him in the tackle.
This goal, scored already in the 63rd second, became the fastest in the Champions League over the past eight years.
In April 2013, Bayern defender David Alaba hit the goal of Juventus in the quarterfinals at 24 seconds.
By and large, the favorite never recovered from the blow.
Andrea Pirlo's wards were in possession of the ball, but practically did not create dangerous moments.
In the first half, they struck only one shot on target.
Shortly before the break, Adrien Rabiot shot through himself after playing the standard.
The hosts were saved by Agustin Marquezin.
In addition, the injury was received by Giorgio Chiellini, who in the 35th minute had to be replaced by Meriha Demiral.
The experienced Leonardo Bonucci was present on the bench, but he also could not enter the field due to injury.
In the second half of the meeting, Porto scored 19 seconds.
The hosts made a simple attack on the right flank.
Nobody prevented Wilson Manafe from going forward along the edge and passing the pass into the penalty area to Moussa Marega.
In turn, the striker calmly handled the ball and shot into the near corner.
So the position of Juventus became threatening.
The team still failed.
The attacks did not carry any danger, and the opponent's defenders competently used an artificial offside position, again and again Alvaro Morata hit.
Ronaldo was almost invisible.
In the entire game, he dealt only one blow.
Porto on counterattacks could well have brought the matter to defeat.
For example, Jesus Corona, following the example of Rabiot, struck through himself from outside the penalty area, but Szczensny pulled the ball out from under the crossbar with difficulty.
The Italian team managed to close the score gap in the end.
Rabiot made a raid on the left flank and performed an excellent cross to the far corner of the penalty area, from where Federico Chiesa hit the goal against the goalkeeper.
And in the 94th minute, the guests claimed a penalty.
Ronaldo, fighting for the ball in someone else's penalty area with Zaidu Zanuzi, fell to the lawn, but Carlos Del Cerro Grande did not point out the "point" and blew the final whistle.
Juventus, although defeated, may well rectify the situation in the return match.
Deadly counterattacks by Borussia
A quick ball was not without in the confrontation between Sevilla and Borussia in Spain.
Already in the seventh minute, the hosts opened an account.
Moreover, the goal also turned out to be quite funny.
Suso did not deliver the strongest blow from outside the penalty area, but Mats Hummels unsuccessfully put himself under the ball, which flew into the net from his foot, passing the disoriented Marvin Hitz.
Later Erling Holland came to the fore.
First he assisted Mahmoud Dahud.
Actually, the Norwegian's discount turned out to be not as noticeable as the great shot of the German from a long distance into the far corner.
Along the way, the midfielder broke off the rival's “dry” streak without conceding goals in all tournaments at the 727 minute mark.
The Dortmund people did not stop there.
Now Holland caught the courage, who, even before the break, managed to make a double within 17 minutes.
First, he dragged the ball to someone else's penalty area, played in the wall with Jadon Sancho and pushed the projectile into the target past Bono.
Then the Norwegian, taking advantage of the discount of Marco Royce, from outside the penalty area struck a sly shot on goal in opposition to the Moroccan.
Along the way, the striker broke two records at once.
Firstly, he became the first footballer in the history of the Champions League who managed to score 18 goals in 13 starting matches in the tournament.
Secondly, it took him only seven meetings to score ten goals in the main European Cup with Borussia.
Erling has eight goals in five games in the current Champions League season and is confidently leading the tournament's top scorers, two hits ahead of Morata, Neymar and Marcus Rashford.
And after the meeting, Holland thanked PSG striker Kilian Mbappé and admitted that it was the Frenchman's hat-trick in the match with Barcelona that inspired him to play successfully.
After such a first half, it was difficult for Sevilla to escape, but in the second half of the meeting the hosts did everything possible for this.
And in the 84th minute, Luc de Jong, after filing from the set, still managed to reduce the team's lag to a minimum.
In the end, Julen Lopetegi's wards in full force went ahead, and emotions on the field were heated to the limit.
Oscar Rodriguez, Holland and even the Spanish specialist himself received yellow cards.
Danny McKeley's final whistle marked Borussia's first away win in the Champions League over a Spanish team since 1996. Then she beat Atlético in October, and at the end of the season won the main European Cup. The new head coach of the team, 38-year-old Edin Terzich, who had not taken part in this tournament before, also made a successful debut in the Champions League.