Morata shines in Juventus win, but Dortmund get priceless away goal

Alvaro Morata was the darling of the evening at the Juventus Stadium Tuesday, leading his side to a 2-1 victory over Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of their round-of-16 contest.

The 22-year-old continued to cement his grip on the starting role alongside Carlos Tevez, setting up his strike partner for the opening goal of the match before scoring the winner himself late in the first half. 

The German side, however, were able to find a potentially vital away goal through - who else - Marco Reus.

Here's what you need to know about Tuesday's thoroughly entertaining match:

• Juventus 1, Borussia Dortmund 0: Roman Weidenfeller's best moment, this was not. The goalkeeper made a mess of a low drive across the box from Morata in the 13th minute, allowing Tevez to tap the the rebound home from inside the six-yard box and send the home crowd into a frenzy.

• Juventus 1, Borussia Dortmund 1: Giorgio Chiellini will be having nightmares about this one. The big defender did his best Steven Gerrard impression, losing his footing in a completely innocuous situation and allowing Reus, the last man you want all alone on goal, to grab the priceless away marker for the German side.

• Juventus lost midfielder Andrea Pirlo to injury in the 36th minute, as the bearded maestro left the contest with an undisclosed ailment. He was replaced by Roberto Pereyra. While the move would seem to hurt the Italian side, it allowed Claudio Marchisio to move into Pirlo's famed regista role, where he excelled for the remainder of the evening.

• Juventus 2, Borussia Dortmund 1: Two shots on target, two goals. Juventus capitalized on the break to close out the first half - an interesting development considering many expected Dortmund to sit back and look to hit on the counter - with Morata getting onto the end of a low cross from Paul Pogba and tapping the ball beyond a helpless Weidenfeller, who could do nothing about this one.
• Though the final possession numbers favored the visitors (53 percent to 47 percent), they were unable to craft any seriously threatening chances aside from their goal, getting only three shots on target. Juventus, in fairness, finished the match with the same total, but could be left to rue some very good chances that went begging late - particularly one from Pereyra, who dragged his shot wide after being played through on goal.
• The two sides will meet again for the second leg on March 18 at the Westfalenstadion, where Dortmund will know that a 1-0 victory is enough to advance to the quarterfinal.