Porto up for us in our first Champions League game of the campaign and whilst it was the sort of weather that’s very heavy on the legs, at times it was the sort of game that’s not exactly easy on the eyes either.
Porto’s Brazilian striker Hulk looked lively from the off, with Cech needing his feet to keep the ball out and whilst Porto settled for waiting for opportunities to counter-attack, we tried to help them out a little by keeping our pass completion percentage as low as possible.
I don’t know, maybe I’m being a bit harsh? We’d definitely had a few chances, particularly towards the end of the first half when it was only Helton’s impressive keeping that kept us all square, but our ability to over-hit passes last night was pretty frustrating.
Anyway second half, yet more misplaced passing initially and my language was threatening to end up as filthy as the weather was in West London. Thankfully though I was saved the penance of a couple of Hail Mary’s when Nicolas Anelka (who hadn’t exactly had the best service all night), struck three minutes in and whilst he might have done better with his initial shot at the keeper, he definitely redeemed himself picking up the rebound and slotting past the near post from a tight angle.
Obviously we’d have expected to romp home after that, but fair play to Porto, who certainly let us know they were there. Whether it was a case of them stepping up their game or us dropping off, was hard to say but we found ourselves under a bit of pressure at times and that second goal didn’t want to come for us. Ironically, whilst I’ve always moaned my arse off about the old route-one football, Ancelotti’s preference for 300 passes before shooting wasn’t frustrating me any less. Ok, so I exaggerate but we were definitely guilty of over-paying it – which suited a Porto side who can move it from defence to attack with a fair bit of pace, and did so repeatedly, in search of an equaliser. This time it was our keeper’s turn to earn his crust – and just as Helton had, Cech proved up to the task. The final minutes of the game saw more of the same from Porto, a red card for Fernando for a second yellow, and a heavy sign of relief for the final whistle.
Comedy moment of the night was provided by Branislav Ivanovic who could almost have got himself done for diving as he tripped over his feet and the ball simultaneously – ok, so the edge of our area wasn’t the safest place to do it but that almost made it funnier – or at least it did once the ball was cleared. Understatement of the night was provided by my teenage son who moaned “our passing’s not exactly adventurous tonight is it.” Mind you, as I pointed out, insisting on passing it to Porto players instead of each other actually was pretty adventurous. And as for the most uplifting moment of the night – aside from the final whistle – was the return of Joe Cole from a lengthy lay-off, albeit on the bench.
Overall then, not our best performance of the season by a long-shot although it becomes more apparent with every game that Chelsea are a lot more patient on the pitch these days than some supporters are off it. We did what we needed to do though, on a tough night against possibly our toughest opposition in the group, so that’s the main thing although we could have done without picking up bookings for Malouda and Essien.
TEAM
Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, Carvalho, A.Cole, Essien, Lampard, Ballack, Malouda, Anelka, Kalou (Belletti, 77)
UNUSED SUBS: Turnbull, J.Cole, Sturridge, Hutchinson, Bruma, Borini
GOALS
Nicolas Anelka, 48
Blue is the colour
