3 things we learned as Juventus sank 10-man Porto 1-0

It was all too easy for Juventus in the Champions League against Porto, beating the Portuguese team 1-0 in Italy to win their round of 16 tie by a 3-0 aggregate score and advance to the quarterfinals. Porto finished with just 10 men for the second time in this tie, with Maxi Pereira getting sent off in the 40th minute before Paulo Dybala scored the resulting penalty.

Porto actually started the match off well, controlling most of the early possession and regularly putting pressure on Juventus’ defense. The Italians absorbed that pressure well, though, and used what opportunities they could to launch vicious counter-attacks through Dybala that regularly left Porto’s defense unsettled.

One of those unsettling counters turned disastrous for Porto late in the first half when a series of shots from point-blank range ended in Maxi Pereira desperately flailing at a ball at the near post, absorbing the shot with his arms — and earning a red card in the process. Dybala, who had helped create the shot that got Pereira sent off, stepped up to the penalty spot and converted with ease, giving Juventus a three-goal aggregate advantage and likely ending Porto’s hopes of a comeback right then and there.

From there, it was all about playing out the string for Juventus. They controlled the ball for long spells when they could, defended when they had to, and generally just used their advantages in quality and numbers to stifle most of Porto’s efforts at staying in the game. It was an easy win for Juventus, and the exact kind of win they were hoping for coming into the game. Now they advance to the Champions League quarterfinal hardly having broken a sweat, eagerly awaiting the draw to see who they’ll be dueling with next.

Juventus: Gianluigi Buffon; Dani Alves, Mehdi Benatia (Andrea Barzagli 60’), Leonardo Bonucci, Alex Sandro; Sami Khedira, Claudio Marchisio; Juan Cuadrado (Marko Pjaca 46’), Paulo Dybala (Tomas Rincon 78’), Mario Mandzukic; Gonzalo Higuain

Goals: Dybala (pen. 41’)

Porto: Iker Casillas; Maximiliano Pereira (red 40’), Felipe, Ivan Marcano, Miguel Layun; Oliver Torres (Otavio 70’), Danilo Pereira, Andre Andre, Yacine Brahimi (Diogo Jota 67’); Tiquinho, Andre Silva (Willy Boly 46’)

Goals: None

Juventus’ dynamic attacker was everywhere on Tuesday, making great defensive plays in his half of the field, then racing up to the final third to make dazzling plays. The 23 year old Argentine has been in incredible form of late, but his all-action effort against Porto was a real eye-opener. He’s been a player long talked about as having the talent and ability to be one of the best players in the game — this match was his way of announcing that he’s almost at that level.

The next step for him will be to maintain this kind of level consistently. We’ve seen flashes of greatness from Dybala before, but often followed by spells of relative mediocrity. He’s been on a good run for awhile now, ever since being given a slightly different role in Juventus’ attack by Max Allegri, and Dybala needs to figure out how to keep it going for a much longer spell — if he does, the sport will be much better off for it.

In the first leg, it was a shocking lack of discipline from Alex Telles that doomed Porto to defeat. In the second leg, it was another sending off that finished the job, with Maxi Pereira stopping a point-blank range shot with his arms. The saddest part is that it was utterly unnecessary — Iker Casillas had, at worst, a good chance of saving the shot. It wasn’t a guarantee, otherwise Pereira wouldn’t have been sent off, but going down a man again ended any small chance Porto had of coming back in this tie right then and there.

We’ve seen in the past that Juventus are capable of some truly dazzling attacking play, but except for when Dybala was on the ball that element of their game was absent — and even then it seemed more like Dybala forcing the issue than anything. They played a very conservative approach, sitting deeper and absorbing pressure instead of opening themselves up to any risk.

It was definitely not the most entertaining approach to the match, but it was unquestionably the right one. Juventus knew that Porto would be in chase mode, coming out aggressively and with a fast team to try to catch them napping. They didn’t let that happen, instead letting Porto wear themselves down and waiting for opportunities and mistakes — opportunities and mistakes that they exploited ruthlessly en route to a win made incredibly easy by that tactical decision to hang back a bit.