Old friends Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe set to lock horns as Juventus take on Porto in Champions League

It was around half past nine, English time, on the third Wednesday of October, that Porto last conceded a goal in the Champions League.

It was Matchday 1, and Manchester City, thanks to Ferran Torres's strike, sealed a 3-1 comeback win. From there, you might have imagined, a Porto in patchy domestic form would face an uphill struggle to make the knockouts.

But by December 2nd they had cruised into the last 16, the only club there from outside the top five European leagues, and boasting a pristine record.

They have played eight hours of Champions League football since Torres arrowed his shot past Agustin Marchesin, the Porto goalkeeper. That’s a long time in the sport’s most prestigious club competition, as its greatest goalscorer would certainly testify.

On his way to winning the fourth of his five European Cups, in 2017, Cristiano Ronaldo scored 10 times in less than eight hours on the pitch; on the way to his fifth, the following season, he had scored 15 goals before reaching the semi-finals.

All of which sets up Wednesday’s visit of Ronaldo’s Juventus to his native Portugal as precisely the sort of challenge he relishes: a stubborn defence to unpick, one part of which he knows intimately.

A principal barrier to the CR7 juggernaut will be Pepe, an international colleague of Ronaldo’s for the last 14 years, a team-mate at Real Madrid for eight seasons and a firm friend to a megastar who tends to be selective about who regards as a genuine buddy.

In between their 324 matches as teammates – including three European Cup triumphs with Madrid and the Euro 2016 title with Portugal – Pepe and Ronaldo “have had many battles in training,” the former told uefa.com. Those jousts would have left some bruises on Ronaldo. The successes achieved by Pepe in his long career were gained thanks to his athleticism, strength and to plenty of aggression.

Porto's Pepe played alongside Cristiano Ronaldo in 324 matches for Real Madrid and Portugal. AFP

The Brazil-born defender will turn 38 between the first and second legs of the tie against Juventus. Ronaldo, meanwhile, celebrated his 36th birthday this month.

Neither show signs of any waning appetite for the game. Pepe reached his century of Champions League matches in the group phase, while Ronaldo will eclipse Iker Casillas’ record number of games in the competition – 177 – this season if Juventus progress to the quarter-finals and their main match-winner remains fit and available.

His 134 Champions League goals are unmatched by anybody in history, and show little sign of slowing. He has four from his last three European matches for Juventus. “Now we are in the knockout rounds, he’ll be even hungrier to score,” warned Juventus manager Andrea Pirlo.

The apparently impregnable hosts are up against a different level of potency than they faced in the group stage against Olympiakos and Marseille as manager Sergio Conceicao made clear yesterday. “I expect a very strong Juventus,” he said, noting Juve’s last adventure in Iberia, at the end of the group phase, with a dry irony. “They only beat Barcelona 3-0 away, after all.”

That, like Porto’s impregnable run, is now at some distance. Conceicao has been under some scrutiny for his team’s stagnant domestic form, with successive draws in the Primeira Liga having widened the gap between Porto, the title-holders, and leaders Sporting to 10 points. Juventus will recognise that sort of discomfort.

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They lost to Napoli at the weekend and the defence of their Serie A crown is faltering, at eight points behind leaders Inter Milan.

“The Champions League is different,” said Pirlo, hopefully. “It has its own special flavour and gets the adrenaline going. We know for these 180 minutes we need to be clear-headed.”

Juventus would be confronting a team who “vary their approach,” he added. “They are more attacking in their own championship than in the Champions League, where they are very good defensively, and at building from the back.”

Pirlo, who will be without Leonardo Bonucci in defence and Paulo Dybala up front because of injury, identified Pepe’s experience as key and praised Conceicao both as a coach and as the player he recalled from the former Portugal winger’s time with Parma, Lazio and Inter.

Pirlo may get a glimpse of the next Conceicao generation this evening. The Porto coach’s son, Francisco, made his senior debut in the 2-2 draw with Boavista at the weekend.

His father smiled when he was asked if might give his boy a European debut, answering only that he was registered in the squad. If he does appear, Pepe and Ronaldo will feel their age. Conceicao junior has only recently turned 18.

Old friends Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe set to lock horns as Juventus take on Porto in Champions League

Veteran duo will face off in thee last-16 first-leg clash at Estadio do Dragao on Wednesday, having won trophies galore together with Real Madrid and Portugal