The UEFA Champions League is into its pre-quarters stage, as the first leg of the platform continued on Wednesday night. With two matches being held, it saw a mixed result.
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Italian champion, Juventus was beaten 1-2 by Portuguese champion, FC Porto, in an away tie. The host was ahead in the opening minute after Mehdi Taremi scored the opener, while Moussa Marega doubled it at 46th. Nonetheless, Federico Chiesa pulled one back for Juventus in the 82nd minute, as the Italian holds an away goal advantage, heading into the second leg, four weeks from now.
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Following the game, Juventus boss, Andrea Pirlo rued that the conceding the goal in the opening minute somewhat demoralised his boys. “We had prepared well for this game, it was not the attitude we wanted, but conceding a goal in the opening minute when we handed it to them on a silver platter made everything more difficult,” he was quoted as saying to Sky Sport Italia.“Porto got the game immediately on the track they wanted. With such a packed fixture list, it’s normal you can’t always maintain absolute focus and the right tempo, but it shouldn’t have happened in the round of 16 of the Champions League,” he concluded.
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Meanwhile, German giant, Borussia Dortmund passed the Sevilla test, away from home, as the former won 3-2. Although Suso handed the host the lead in the seventh minute, Mahmoud Dahoud levelled it in the 19th minute, while Erling Haaland scored a brace, in the 27th and 43rd, to hand the visitor a healthy lead. Although Luuk de Jong scored the second for Sevilla in the 84th, Dortmund managed to hold on to the lead by the full-time whistle.
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In the meantime, Haaland reckoned that he was inspired by Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick for Paris Saint-Germain, the previous night, against Barcelona. “I saw Mbappe yesterday and he scored some nice goals, and I got a free boost from him! So yeah, it was nice,” he told CBS Sports.“We have to recover quickly now. We’ve got a big game ahead this weekend. We have to take this positive mindset into that game because we have to win that one as well, but it was really nice to win tonight in Spain,” he asserted to DAZN.
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