Udinese stun toothless Juve in Serie A
Juventus are seemingly out of the race for the Serie A title, as they sank to a shock 1-0 home defeat to Udinese.
Juventus beat Porto 1-0 on the night to qualify for the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals (3-0 aggregate) in a dour round-of-16 second leg tie at the Juventus Stadium on Tuesday night.
Leading 2-0 from the first leg in Portugal, Juve were virtually assured of a place in the last eight but coach Massmiliano Allegri was taking no chances as he sent out his best possible XI with Medhi Benatia starting in place of Giorgio Chiellini.
While the game reflected fairly close game, it was anything but as the home side dominated proceedings straight from kick-off.
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But with Juve struggling to put away their chances, a chance of Porto scoring a shock away goal were increasing and the Bianconeri faithful urged their side to score a goal which would effectively put the game beyond doubt.
Paulo Dybala, on a hot-streak of late, came close on several occasions as did fellow forward Mario Mandzukic but somehow the visitors held out.
The first half was meandering towards goalless one, when the match turned firmly in the hosts visitors, Maxi Pereira getting sent off five minutes before the interval. The full back illegally blocked Gonzalo Higuain’s goal bound shot with his hands and gave no choice to match referee Ovidiu Hategan to show him a straight red and award Juve a penalty.
Dybala, who had scored a last-gasp penalty in the thrilling win over AC Milan on the weekend, stepped up and sent Iker Casillas the wrong way in the 42nd minute to seal the deal.
The second half was played at a relatively sedate pace as Porto were left with an improbable task of scoring three goals if they were to qualify and against a steely Juve defence, it never looked like happening.
While the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich are strong contenders, Juve have an impressive squad at their disposal and they might just go all the way this year.
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