3 things we learned as Juventus beat 10-man Porto 2-0

What had promised to be a close and exciting tie is all but over thanks to a moment of idiocy from Alex Telles. The Porto defender got sent off in the first half, giving Juventus all the advantage they needed en route to a 2-0 win as they head back to Italy for the second leg of the tie.

The match got off to a grindingly slow start, with Juventus dominating possession relatively easily, but not doing much of anything with it. The Italians had a few half-chances in the opening spell of the match, but nothing that was especially dangerous, and Porto goalkeeper Iker Casillas wasn’t troubled much. Porto were relatively happy with their start, keeping a dangerous team like Juventus at bay with little danger to be had.

Then, just before the half hour mark, Porto’s solid start was completely destroyed because of what can only be described as two minutes of sheer idiocy from left back Alex Telles. In a 74-second span, he scythed through Juan Cuadrado, and then Stephan Lichsteiner, with a pair of rash tackles that were sloppy, hard, and utterly unnecessary in the moment and situation on the pitch. Telles was rightfully booked both times, leaving Porto a man down and forced to take off a talented attacker in Andre Silva to restore their defense to full strength.

It handed a huge advantage to Juventus, though they were mostly happy to sit back a bit and wait for Porto to make mistakes. They didn’t get too many openings as their hosts basically shut up shop, with Porto praying for a clean sheet instead of trying to sneak a goal of their own. Juventus did get the ball in the back of the net right at the start of the second half, but the strike from Paulo Dybala was ruled offside in what looked like a very, very close call.

The match slowed back down for a spell after that, but only because Juventus were playing the long game, letting Porto wear themselves down while waiting for their own chances. Those chances came after the 70th minute, when a pair of substitutes -- Marko Pjaca and Dani Alves — scored within minutes of each other and within minutes of stepping onto the pitch, taking advantage of a tiring Porto defense that wasn’t sure what to make of Juventus’ changes yet.

Those goals effectively ended the game, with Juventus having a few more chances to score but not needing to push overly hard to get there. This tie is effectively over, and pretty much ended when Telles was sent off — Juventus scoring twice only put the nails in the coffin for Porto. There’s still one more match to play, but with a two goal lead and and two away goals in hand, it’s really hard to see a way back for Porto now.

FC Porto: Iker Casillas; Maxi Pereira, Felipe, Ivan Marcano, Alex Telles (red 27’); Danilo; Hector Herrera, Ruben Neves (Jesus Corona 61’), Yacine Brahimi (Diogo Jota 73’); Andre Silva (Miguel Layun 30’), Tiquinho Soares

Goals: None

Juventus: Gianluigi Buffon; Stephan Lichtsteiner (Dani Alves 73’), Andrea Barzagli, Giorgio Chiellini, Alex Sandro; Sami Khedira, Miralem Pjanic; Juan Cuadrado (Marko Pjaca 67’), Paulo Dybala (Claudio Marchisio 86’), Mario Mandzukic; Gonzalo Higuain

Goals: Pjaca (72’), Alves (74’)

Even with a man advantage for over an hour of the match, Juventus rarely pushed the tempo of the match, instead seeming content to control possession and wait for openings. While perhaps a bit boring, that approach is understandable under the circumstances for Juventus.

With multiple starting defenders playing hurt and arguably their best defender benched for a disciplinary measure, playing aggressively was never in the cards for the Italian team. Instead, they stayed disciplined and worked to avoid giving Porto any opportunities to exploit, while staying patient and waiting for opportunities of their own. Obviously that worked out given the final score, but it would have been fine even if the match ended as a scoreless draw, because such a result still would have favored Juventus heavily going back to Turin in the second leg.

Porto’s chances of advancing past a team like Juventus were never good, but when Telles picked up his two bookings in under 90 seconds, that killed their chances dead right then and there. Going down to ten men gave Juventus the chance they needed to win this tie with authority, picking up a big aggregate lead and multiple away goals, and now there’s virtually no way they can overcome that deficit.

Porto always needed a lot of things to go right for them to win this, but Telles’ lack of discipline took all their plans and turned them into ashes. Always a player who’s struggled with discipline from time to time, Porto needed him to keep his head on straight, but instead he went in on two stupid, needless tackles and put his team into a bad situation. Telles was already running out of chances to make an impact at the higher levels of this game — this match might have ended his chances altogether, because very few managers will ever trust him again.

With Juventus still chasing a goal late in the match and Porto’s defense starting to wear a bit thin, Allegri made two changes to his team that made all the difference he needed and then some. Putting on the fresh and fast legs of Marko Pjaca and Dani Alves quickly lead to a goal from each substitute, each coming in the opening minutes after their entrances while Porto were still trying to sort out what to do about them.

Both substitutions were the perfect response to the situation at hand in the match, and Allegri should be applauded for making those decisions. They worked perfectly, but even if neither player had scored, those substitutions were still the correct and best decisions to make there, and ultimately should prove to be the decisions that secure the win in this Champions League tie for Juventus.