Real recognise real.

Following Juventus’ 2-0 victory over FC Porto in Wednesday’s Champions League Round of 16 clash, iconic shot-stoppers Gianluigi Buffon and Iker Casillas – two men whose admiration for one another is well-known – shared a touching embrace.

Related – Subs to the rescue: Pjaca, Alves lift Juventus past 10-man Porto

The Italian and Spanish greats have won a remarkable 39 trophies between them in all competitions over their illustrious careers, and, assuming both are fit, will likely take the pitch together one final time when the return leg takes place March 14 in Turin.

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

Paolo Bandini

58m ago

Reuters / Miguel Vidal Livepic

Perhaps Massimiliano Allegri does know a thing or two about substitutions after all. Juventus’ preparations for the Champions League visit to Porto had been overshadowed by a row with Leonardo Bonucci during Friday’s win over Palermo, which began when the defender tried to convince him to replace an exhausted Claudio Marchisio.

The dialogue between manager and defender descended rapidly into an exchange of insults. Bonucci would subsequently pay a steep price for his dissent. Fined and excluded from the squad to face Porto, he wound up watching Wednesday’s game alongside Pavel Nedved and Beppe Marotta in a director’s box.

Perched awkwardly on a stool in the corner, he could only watch as his team laboured through an unconvincing 72 minutes before snatching victory with a pair of goals from players that Allegri introduced off the bench.

Marko Pjaca will take the headlines, as the man who eventually broke the deadlock. This was his first goal in a Juventus shirt, something supporters in Turin have been awaiting impatiently ever since the Croatian completed his €23-million transfer from Dinamo Zagreb in the summer.

A fractured fibula kept him out of action from October through to December, but his performances either side of that enforced absence had also been unconvincing. Pjaca insisted that “scoring is not an obsession for me” during an interview with Tuttosport last September, but he had also failed to provide so much as an assist in 13 appearances.

Related – Subs to the rescue: Pjaca, Alves lift Juventus past 10-man Porto

By striding through to sweep an excellent finish beyond Iker Casillas at the Estadio do Dragao, he has bought himself some time. The unfortunate reality of life as a young player at a club pursuing titles is that you will only get so many chances to prove that you can contribute something concrete.

His goal, though, might have done even more to boost the cause of Allegri himself. This had previously been a tepid performance from Juventus, on a night when things ought to have been so much more straightforward.

With superior quality throughout the side, the Italian champion was at an advantage even before Porto’s Alex Telles got himself sent off with a pair of astonishingly unnecessary bookings. Having planted his studs into Juan Cuadrado’s heel in the 25th minute, he waited just 74 seconds before carving into Stephan Lichtsteiner.

His dismissal stripped away any hint of attacking ambition from an already cautious Porto team. Telles was a key weapon through the group stage, registering the third-most successful crosses of any player in the competition. If losing him was not damaging enough to the hosts’ chances of troubling that Bonucci-less Juventus defence, then the subsequent withdrawal of top scorer Andre Silva for a full-back, Miguel Layun, sealed the deal.

Porto settled back into a 4-4-1 formation, rarely venturing out of its own half, and yet Juventus looked for a long time as though it might lack the tools to unpick the host side. From endless possession the Bianconeri carved out the odd chance, but lacked tempo and vision.

The Bianconeri also lacked Bonucci, a man whose range of passing from the back often helps in situations such as this. It speaks volumes that the closest the visitor came to scoring – one wrongly disallowed effort aside – was on a Paulo Dybala shot which struck the post from 20 yards out.

Even Pjaca’s goal had a somewhat coincidental feel. The Croatian took his finish excellently, but the ball had been diverted into his path by Layun – that same player who only made it onto the pitch as a result of Telles’ stupidity. Dybala’s original through-ball was intended not for Pjaca but for Lichtsteiner.

Juventus’ second goal had a little more craft. Alex Sandro picked out Allegri’s second substitute, Dani Alves, with a cross from the left and the Brazilian chested it down before firing into the top corner.

Allegri’s point was made, his authority over this team re-exerted.

Juventus had not been been a joy to watch, but emerged with a 2-0 victory that leaves the Italian side with one foot in the quarter-finals of this season’s Champions League. Allegri’s men did it with their best defender watching from the stands.

Even so, all parties need to choose their paths from here wisely. Tougher tests lie ahead in this competition, and not every opponent will be so generous in reducing itself to 10 men (even it has happened already once this season, away to Sevilla).

Juventus’ hopes of winning the Champions League would look an awful lot better with Bonucci stood on the pitch, instead of peering down from the stands.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)

With the first legs of Champions League Round of 16 fixtures over, theScore looks at what we learned in the four matches across Tuesday and Wednesday.

It’ll be gung ho in Monaco

It took 26 minutes for Raheem Sterling to open the scoring in Tuesday’s visit from AS Monaco, and that kicked the floodgates wide open. For the rest of the match, 15 minutes weren’t able to pass without another goal, as the visitor and Manchester City took turns testing each other’s shaky backlines.

It was a match which fitted its billing as two of Europe’s most forward-thinking teams exchanged eight goals – a record high for a last-16 first leg – with City the triumphant party with five.

And the next meeting should be no different.

“We don’t have to underestimate them and must try to score goals again. We are a team that can get the goals but we can concede goals,” Yaya Toure said, before noting that a team featuring himself, David Silva, Bacary Sagna, and Pablo Zabaleta, all of whom are aged 31 and over, looked sprightly.

“After the game my wife called me and said we were looking young today, the team was brilliant.”

While Pep Guardiola echoed Toure’s belief that City will need to attack in Monaco, it could be easier for the northwest club in the second leg: Kamil Glik, the uncompromising and pivotal centre-half, will be suspended for the tilt.

Foxes avoid Sevilla battering

Kasper Schmeichel was the only member of the away side in the opening stanza deserving of credit, and he must’ve been at a loss when trying to comprehend the ineptitude of his Leicester City colleagues in front of him.

While he thwarted Joaquin Correa from the penalty spot, captain Wes Morgan trundled around unathletically and the Foxes distribution – they had a 58 percent pass success rate to Sevilla’s 85 – was woeful.

After just over an hour, the Andalusians were deservedly up 2-0.

Then Jamie Vardy, hero of 24 goals en route to Leicester’s shock Premier League title win last term, hit his first shot on target in 380 minutes. And he scored.

Related: Vardy gives Leicester life after converting 1st shot on target in ages

With an away goal and just one strike to scale in the second bout, this two-legged affair is unexpectedly wide open. Schmeichel is due plenty of credit for simultaneously keeping Leicester’s continental hopes alive, and Jorge Sampaoli’s organised chaos at bay on numerous occasions.

Griezmann’s parting gift?

Six blows were exchanged between Atletico Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen, meaning Tuesday was the highest-scoring knockout day (14 goals) since 2009 – when four matches were played.

There’s a lingering concern that Antoine Griezmann, the scorer of the second in the 4-2 win, will be on his way though. Manchester United is apparently sniffing, and will be encouraged by the Frenchman surpassing legend Luis Aragones as Atleti’s top scorer in Europe with 13.

If he is heading for the exit, Kevin Gameiro will have to step up fast after some largely indifferent form. He showed he hadn’t lost his goalscoring touch in his hat trick in the space of 294 seconds three days before the Leverkusen match, and then held up the ball magnificently for Griezmann’s tally in North Rhine-Westphalia:

But, despite there being two distinct and organised lines of four before Griezmann’s finish, Diego Simeone’s lot is still hemorrhaging goals by its usual standards. In La Liga, Los Colchoneros have conceded eight more goals than at the same point of last season.

The Old Lady makes hard work of deserved win

Referee Felix Brych made some dodgy calls in Juventus’ trip to FC Porto, but Massimiliano Allegri’s tactical nous prevailed near the banks of the Douro River.

While Allegri may have his doubters for building success on the instrumental foundations laid by his predecessor Antonio Conte, it’s tweaks like his introductions of Marko Pjaca and Dani Alves that must have the Arsenal hierarchy strongly considering him as Arsene Wenger’s successor.

Related – Arsenal-linked Allegri: I’m not learning English again

Both players scored. Pjaca opened his Juventus account with a smash before Alves met a teasing Alex Sandro cross to double the Old Lady’s advantage. Or triple – considering the importance of bagging away goals in the knockout rounds.

Porto will travel to Turin on March 14 as the rank underdog: Juventus hasn’t lost at home in the Champions League since a quarter-final squabble with Bayern Munich in April 2013.

(Photos courtesy: Reuters)