Juventus scraped a 1-0 win over Sporting CP thanks to unexpected heroes Federico Gatti and Mattia Perin, but the Europa League quarter-final is still very much in the balance.
Both these sides dropped down from the Champions League group stage and Sporting were fresh from eliminating Arsenal on penalties. Federico Chiesa returned to the starting XI, though Dusan Vlahovic and Paul Pogba were only fit for the bench, Alex Sandro and Mattia De Sciglio injured. The visitors missed Jovane Cabral, Daniel Braganca, Paulinho and suspended Manuel Ugarte.
The new all-attack trident worked well, as Angel Di Maria floated a cross-field ball for the excellent Chiesa first touch and strike to sting Antonio Adan’s gloves.
Wojciech Szczesny had two tough saves to make in a couple of minutes, first on the acrobatic Sebastian Coates volley from eight yards, then on Pedro Goncalves at the near post.
When he was seemingly beaten, Gleison Bremer made the block on Nuno Santos after a splendid Marcus Edwards run and Hidemasa Morita drilled just wide.
There was a strange moment just before half-time when Szczesny was struggling to breathe after colliding with the upright and had to make way for Mattia Perin in tears after that scare. Jeremiah St. Juste also went off with a hamstring strain.
After the restart, Perin beat away a Pedro Goncalves snapshot, but it was more even than the Sporting siege which saw out the first half.
Chiesa flashed a ball across the face of goal from the left and nobody got on the end of it, but Adan flapped at the resulting Nicolò Fagioli corner, Dusan Vlahovic’s attempt was cleared off the line by Coates and Gatti managed to bundle over the line.
Morita’s diving header flashed just wide and Paul Pogba made an acrobatic defensive interception, but in stoppages Perin made an astonishing double save on both the seemingly inevitable Pedro Goncalves tap-in and the Hector Bellerin follow-up.
Juventus 1-0 Sporting
Gatti 73 (J)
Player statistic
| 20' |  |
Gonçalo Inácio | ||
| Adrien Rabiot | |
24' |
| Dusan Vlahovic | |
65' | ||
| Federico Gatti |  |
73' |
Match statistic
