The Portuguese star is running out of time to win a sixth Champions League title after an FC Porto side featuring Zaidu Sanusi defied the odds to knock out Juventus.
Super Eagles star Zaidu Sanusi faced the two biggest challenges of his career in the last three weeks, and he passed both in flying colours.
The Nigerian international played a vital role in the Porto team that stopped Juventus from reaching the Champions League quarterfinal.
With five-time Champions League winner Cristiano Ronaldo in the Juventus team, Sanusi and his Porto were in for a difficult mission.
However, the former Santa Clara player was brilliant over two legs to help the Portuguese champions progress to the quarterfinal.
The 23-year-old featured for 71 minutes at the Allianz Stadium and was solid defensively, winning six duels, while he also had a 79% accuracy.
Porto had stunned the Italian Champions in the first leg, winning 2-1 at the Estádio do Dragão, but Juventus were still favourites to progress last night.
But it was the Portuguese champions that took the lead courtesy of a Sérgio Oliveira penalty in the 19th minute after Merih Demiral had fouled Moussa Marega.
However, Juventus equalised four minutes into the second-half through Federico Chiesa. Things got worse for Porto as Mehdi Taremi received a second yellow card for kicking the ball away in frustration.
Andrea Pirlo’s men took advantage of the extra man to take the lead, with Chiesa heading his second from a Juan Cuadrado’s cross.
Chiesa’s second levelled the tie on aggregate, but the Old Lady were now favourites to progress due to the man advantage.
However, Juventus could not find a third, and the match went into extra-time. The extra-time was filled with drama as Oliviera fired in a freekick to draw Porto level and restore their aggregate lead.
Adrien Rabiot’s header from a corner kick then levelled the aggregate scores, but the Old Lady still crashed out on away goals