Date: Wednesday 7th
April 2021
Venue: Estadio Ramon
Sanchez-Pizjuan
Kick-off: 20:00 BST
After
being torn a new one at the weekend, tonight it’s a trip to Seville for the
first leg of our Champions League quarter-final with FC Porto.
Porto beat
Juventus to make the last eight and come into the
game off the back of three consecutive wins in the Primeira Liga, including a
win against Santa Clara at the weekend. Chelsea progressed
with a comfortable win against Atletico Madrid, then beat Sheffield United in the FA Cup before being royally thumped by West
Brom on Saturday.
Porto, who won the
competition under Jose Mourinho in 2003/04, have reached the
quarter-finals for just the fourth time in the past 16 seasons. Obviously, we won
the Champions League in 2012, but the 2013-14
season was the last time we progressed past the quarter-final stage.
Porto have
only failed to score once in their last 12 games across all competitions, but whilst
we’re leaner on goals in the league, we’ve scored 11 goals and conceded just
one in four away victories in the Champions League this season. We’ve also got
a decent record against Porto, with five wins out of eight Champions League
meetings with them since 2004.
That’s a
record we need to continue and let’s face it, there really can’t be any excuses
tonight given we had a rest at the weekend.
MANAGER’S VIEWS
Going into today’s game, Porto boss Sergio Conceicao, says “Chelsea until
this last game had been extremely competent, they have not lost a game in the
Champions League, they have the second-best defence in the Champions League and
also in the English League. They are a competent team, and when these defeats
happen it serves as a warning. If you
want my opinion, I would prefer that they won the last game. Because these
situations make the siren sound and make everyone more alert, more awake to
danger, and I honestly don’t like these defeats very much.”
Thomas Tuchel, meanwhile, says “It’s
the quarter-final of the Champions League, so you play four halves that you
need to be fully focused for, self-aware of our strengths, what our attacking
patterns are that we want find after the international break and our game on
Saturday. The challenge is to be totally
focused on our strengths and to narrow the focus to 45 minutes and then another
45 minutes. I’m super happy today because everybody was back in training. So we
will have some major decisions to make and I am sure everybody will be ready
for the game.
I have the feeling we can overcome Porto but it
will be a tough match. They are a very experienced side in this competition,
champions for many years in Portugal. This makes it a certain mentality. But we
are strong enough and believe in ourselves that we can overcome this round.”
SQUAD NEWS
For Porto,
Oliveira and Mehdi Taremi are both suspended, but Pepe is back and
Malang Sarr is eligible for selection against us.
For Chelsea, Kante is fit but is likely to be on the bench, with the Jorginho and
Kovacic pairing likely to frustrate excite us instead. Christian Pulisic
is also available, assuming the tunnel isn’t too taxing for his hamstring. Rudiger
hasn’t been grounded after his bust-up with Kepa and might have to battle it
out with Thiago Silva for a starting place. Tammy Abraham has also travelled
but is likely to be overlooked in favour of Giroud.
TEAMS
PORTO (Possible line-up): Marchesin; Manafa, Pepe, Mbemba, Sanusi; Corona, Grujic, Uribe, Otavio;
Marega, Martinez
CHELSEA (Possible
line-up): Mendy; Azpilicueta, Silva, Christensen;
Hudson-Odoi, Jorginho, Kovacic, Alonso; Ziyech, Mount; Giroud
CL FORM
PORTO: WWDWWL
CHELSEA: WWWDWW
OTHER STUFF
- Porto have lost five of their eight
UEFA Champions League games against Chelsea.
- Porto have only lost more against Real Madrid than
Chelsea in the competition.
- This will be only the second knockout tie
between Chelsea and Porto in the UEFA Champions League, with Chelsea
progressing 3-2 on aggregate in the last 16 2006-07.
- Since winning the UEFA Champions League in
2003-04, Porto have only won one of their six games in the competition at
the quarter-final stage.
PREDICTION
Sportsmole: Porto 1-2 Chelsea
