Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo said he and Cristiano Ronaldo had agreed in the buildup to Saturday's win over Lazio that the Portuguese would be benched in order to be fresh for Tuesday's clash with Porto.
Serie A's top goalscorer started on the bench as Juve came from behind to beat Lazio 3-1 at the Juventus Stadium.
Trailing 2-1 in their Champions League last-16 clash with Porto ahead of Tuesday's second leg in Turin, Pirlo decided to give the 36-year-old Ronaldo a break.
"He came from eight or nine consecutive games, we made an agreement during the week [for Ronaldo to be rested], it was already planned," Pirlo told Sky Sport Italia.
"Cristiano is an added value, the boys have done what they had to do tonight without him. Cristiano has already scored 20 goals, it was normal that others also scored."
The visitors trailed to a 14th-minute Joaquin Correa strike before goals from Adrien Rabiot and a double from Alvaro Morata helped Juve close the gap on leaders Inter Milan to six points.
"We started badly due to our mistake with a back pass and we opened the goal to Lazio," Pirlo added.
"There was a great reaction and despite the many [injury] absences we played an excellent match. We didn't get down and that's the most important thing."
Lazio were looking comfortable with their first-half lead before Rabiot's equaliser, but the defending for Juve's second was poor and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic's clumsy tackle on Aaron Ramsey to concede the penalty for the third goal was needless.
"It's a defeat that hurts," said Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi whose side's hopes of Champions League football next season took a knock as they sit seventh, six points adrift of Atalanta in fourth place. They also trail title-holders Bayern Munich in their Champions League last-16 clash 4-1 ahead of the return leg on March 18.
"We compromised the game alone, giving away an avoidable penalty. We made some mistakes and at Juventus, with some mistakes you don't win."
