And that’s your lot. Cheers for reading everyone, a very good evening to you all.
So Chelsea are through safely, and as group winners too. That means they’ll avoid the likes of Real, Barca, Bayern and, erm, Wolfsburg. A pleasing night all round for Jose and Roman.
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Well that was pretty impressive by Chelsea. Might even be their best performance of the season, and while there have been plenty of false dawns for their season so far, this was hugely encouraging for them. They looked solid in defence and sparky in attack with some delightful approach play between Willian, Oscar and Hazard, and had Diego Costa not decided to play in gumboots, the victory might well have been much more emphatic.
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Full-time: Chelsea 2-0 Porto
Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
90 mins + 3: Good lord that would’ve been a wonderful goal. Aboubakar clips the ball from the right to the left of the box, Brahimi is there and hits a beautiful curling volley, but it just doesn’t curl enough and goes wide of the post.
90 mins + 1: Big spaces opening up in the Porto defence now, and Remy finds himself in one. He shifts the ball hither and thither then shoots, but slices it comfortably wide.
90 mins: Three minutes of stoppage time. Aboubakar tries a shot from outside the area that’s blocked rather easily by Zouma.
89 mins: Loic Remy’s about to get his appearance fee. Do appearance fees make much of a difference to players these days? Anyway, he’s on for Hazard.
87 mins: Do you think the Porto forward’s significant other calls him ‘My Corona’?
86 mins: Sub for Chelsea - Costa is off, and John Obi Mikel is on.
85 mins: Olé! Chelsea are knocking it around with carefree abandon now. All very loose now, in quite an entertaining away. The game’s over, and everyone’s just having a bit of fun. When was the last time they had fun at Chelsea?
83 mins: Porto still chipping away. Corona attempts an effort from outside the box, but Courtois saves that rather easily.
81 mins: Sub for Chelsea - Pedro is on, Oscar is off.
80 mins: Brilliance from Hazard, leaving a couple of Porto defenders for dead on the left side of the area, but he probably waited half a second too long for the shot, and it hits the near post. Casillas was actually a bit lucky that didn’t bounce off his head and go into the net, there.
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79 mins: Costa is again set free, running towards goal on the right, and again he takes a very heavy touch and it goes straight through to Casillas. He’s looked better tonight, but that last touch is still lacking. Meanwhile, a cross into the box finds Hazard, but his header is straight at Casillas.
77 mins: Tello spins and shoots on the edge of the box, but Courtois gets down low to flick the ball just around the post, even though it might have been going wide anyway.
76 mins: Out of nowhere, the ball breaks through to Corona through on goal, but some splendid defending by Zouma keeps him from getting a shot in. That was immense stuff from the Frenchman, getting his body in the way firmly but very fairly.
75 mins: Corona slides a ball through to Aboubakar, but a brilliant piece of tracking back from Terry stops him from getting a shot away.
74 mins: Silly foul by Ivanovic - Corona was going nowhere out on the left, and the Chelsea man hacked him down and is booked.
72 mins: Eeesh, that would’ve been delicious - Willian feeds the ball to Oscar in the area, and he attempts a backheeled shot, but Casillas gets down to save it.
71 mins: Final change for Porto - Christian Tello is on, replacing Herrera.
70 mins: Costa is set clean through on goal with a wonderful pass, but he dithers a little and glances to the right to check he was onside, and Danilo dashes back to shoulder charge him out of the way. A big chance missed, there.
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68 mins: A spot of champagne football, if you can imagine such a thing, from Chelsea. Some beautiful interplay down the left sets Hazard away, but his ball into the box towards Costa isn’t quite close enough to the Spain striker. The olés will be out soon.
66 mins: Forget this game, which is just starting to wind down really - Olivier Giroud has scored a hat-trick for Arsenal. What a world.
64 mins: Impressive piece of play from Porto. Corona skips around Azpilicueta impressively and clips a cross to the back stick. Brahimi controls it, smartly creates some space and shoots, it’s heading towards the top corner but it takes a flick of Ivanovic’s head and goes just wide. An almost certain goal without that deflection.
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62 mins: Chelsea counter at some pace, but Hazard’s ball looking to set Willian away is overhit. Casillas comes out to clear, but he slices it rather, out of play on the right.
61 mins: Brahimi tries to get into the area from the left, but he’s stopped by Ivanovic, who in turn almost makes a hash of the clearance, before Zouma nips in to welt it clear.
60 mins: Michael Owen reckons Porto need to score a goal pretty quickly. You can’t argue with his logic.
59 mins: Jose seems much happier now. He’s smiling, clapping, not doing that awful mirthless laugh thing when a decision goes against him. It’s nice.
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56 mins: Porto going for it now - a double sub, with Imbula coming off, replaced by Vincent Aboubakar, while Pereira comes off for Ruben Neves. So that’s two forwards for a holding midfielder and a full-back. All. In.
55 mins: Porto try to work a chance around the edge of the Chelsea penalty area, shifting the ball around for the better part of a minute before eventually getting the effort away, but it’s deflected wide.
54 mins: A weight is lifted around Stamford Bridge, as it would take a pretty special effort to muff things up from here.
52 mins: Fitting rather that Chelsea’s best player this season should get the goal. Costa squares to Hazard, who in turn slips it right to Willian, who batters a low shot just inside the near post. Lovely stuff that from Chelsea.
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GOAL! Chelsea 2-0 Porto (Willian 52)
Sighs of relief all round.
50 mins: Imbula is pretty lucky to get away without a booking, as he chops down Willian but the referee merely wags his finger. Equally, Herrera receives no censure after a foul on Azpilicueta, although that one was probably fair enough, no matter how hard John Terry lobbies for a booking.
48 mins: Decent effort by Corona, as he cuts in from the left and fires a shot heading towards the top corner, but Courtois gets there to stop his effort.
47 mins: Chance for Chelsea - Costa, who’s looked rather sparkier than usual, skips around one challenge and feeds Willian, but his low shot from the right channel just outside the box is saved relatively easily by Casillas.
46 mins: And we’re away. Porto need a couple of goals to go through, Chelsea merely to hang onto what they have.
Jose is welcoming the officials back onto the pitch with handshakes and so forth. Classic Jose.
Well that’s pretty encouraging from a Chelsea perspective. They haven’t been outstanding by any means, but they’ve done more than enough to deserve their lead, even if that did occur with a good degree of fortune. Things seem rather more relaxed at the Bridge now.
Half-time: Chelsea 1-0 Porto
Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
45 mins: Oscar lays it through to Costa on the right, but he doesn’t have much support so might as well shoot. He does, but it goes wide via the fingertips of Casillas - was probably missing anyway, that.
43 mins: Ooof. Costa is felled like an old oak by Martins Indi, a chopping tackle that quite rightly earns the Dutchman a yellow card.
42 mins: A shot from Porto! Brahimi spins around 30 yards from goal and takes a low effort, but it skips off the turf and Courtois saves without too much drama down to his right.
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40 mins: A yellow card, this time for Danilo, and he will also be suspended for Porto’s next European game.
38 mins: Chelsea press pretty heavily through Costa, Willian and then Matic on the left side of the area, a brief passage of play that ends in the big Serbian charging down a shot, and it flies straight at Casillas. Presumably, that will count as a shot on target.
37 mins: Pereira and Willian go up for a header, and the former goes down clutching his stomach and the latter his head. Work that one out.
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36 mins: Gone a bit quiet now. Perhaps everyone is taking stock. Or perhaps it’s just Stamford Bridge...
35 mins: Willian tries to fire in the free-kick but it takes a deflection and goes wide. The subsequent corner is poor and cleared at the near post. Set piece delivery has been a little shonky so far.
33 mins: Oscar and Pereira have a minor disagreement on the left. There shortly follows another and the Porto man is booked for shoving him over rather blatantly, which results in another yellow card and another suspension for their next European game.
31 mins: Matic goes into the book for a foul on Brahimi and will now miss the next game through suspension. Whoever that might be against.
29 mins: Hazard dashes in from the left and plays a quick reverse pass looking for Matic, but it’s too quick even for his own teammate and it’s cleared.
27 mins: Casillas plays a poor pass out which sets up a Chelsea attack. Oscar brings it towards the edge of the box, feeds it to Willian in some space after Costa’s excellent diversionary run, the ball is returned to Oscar with a delicious flick and he shoots, it’s deflected and skips just, just, just wide. Lovely play, that.
25 mins: Julen Lopetegui, the Porto coach, shakes his head as a nascent attack breaks down rather too quickly for his liking. Jose stalks around next to him.
23 mins: Willian has a free-kick in the left corner, which he flings over right into the middle. Casillas doesn’t come to collect it, but it’s smuggled clear nonetheless.
21 mins: A replay of that Oscar/penalty incident from a few moments ago suggests it was a classic ‘left his foot in to encourage a trip’ incident. Hats off to the ref for spotting that one.
20 mins: Curious incident as the ball skips through to Casillas, Costa does what Costa does and leaves a little something on him, tripping him over for which he immediately apologises to the ref, who promptly books Casillas. Very odd.
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19 mins: Goal in the other game- Dynamo Kiev have taken the lead over Maccabi Tel Aviv, which is bad news for Porto. As things stand, the Ukrainians are going through.
18 mins: Penalty shout for Chelsea, but it isn’t given. Costa lays the ball off to Oscar, who tries to break past Marcano but goes to ground just inside the box. He’s waved up by the referee, and while this doesn’t always follow, it would’ve been a very odd decision to dive from there.
17 mins: Porto attempt an attack, but Imbula’s through-ball is cut out rather easily. Hazard is chopped to the ground by Maxi Pereira, and gets away without a booking by being nice and friendly to the referee.
16 mins: “I would think anything that Abramovich wants from the club shop is put on Jose’s tab at the moment,” says Mark Judd. “Might as well get some use out of him.”
14 mins: Chelsea aren’t hanging around now. They go looking for another one straightaway, but Costa’s attack is stifled.
12 mins: Chelsea lead. Diego Costa is set clear on goal, he takes a heavy touch but still gets the shot away. Iker Casillas saves but it rebounds off Marcano and heads towards goal, where Maicon scoops it away. Initially nothing is given, but one of those behind the goal officials signals that it had gone over the line. And replays suggest he was right, to the tune of a couple of yards.
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GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Porto (Marcano OG 12)
Scenes!
11 mins: Ivanovic in some discomfort after a brief head clash with Layun, but despite kicking the ball out of play so he could get some treatment, he seems fine.
10 mins: Roman Abramovich is in the house. Looks like he’s been to the club shop. Do you reckon he still has to pay?
8 mins: Willian, then Matic are penalised for some minor rough-housing out on the right. A relatively quiet start in this one so far. Cagey. Both teams feeling each other out. Perhaps in the knowledge that defeat for either probably means curtains.
6 mins: The excellent Brahimi dances down the right and skips past Azpilicueta, makes room for a shot and fires one in towards the near post, but Courtois gets a sturdy hand to it and beats it away.
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5 mins: Diego Costa looks fired up tonight. Could go either way, that. He charges after a long clearance by Terry, but doesn’t get there, his arms waving around harmlessly, as it turns out, but you can see how that might go wrong.
2 mins: Willian whips one of those cross-shot things over that seems to elude everyone before going out, but the referee gives a corner anyway.
Meanwhile, Peter Oh has been riffing: “The mention of the body fluid cocktail inadvertently set off the chorus of INXS’ “Bitter Tears” in my head, although “Need You Tonight” is more likely to be running through Jose Mourinho’s as he glances at Diego Costa warming up. Fading into “Disappear” as he spies Cesc Fabregas seating his light weight on the bench.”
1 min: We’re away. Chelsea kick off, and knock it around for a bit. Then Oscar is pushed over out on the left, before the ball is deemed too soft and is discarded. Hopefully not forever. That would be awfully sad.
The players are in the tunnel. It. Is. On.
Mourinho says Fabregas was dropped because he doesn’t want too many ‘lightweights’ in midfield. Ouch Cesc. Ouch.
“Of every horror described in that article,” writes Daniel Stauss, quite reasonably, “the bitters made with tears was possibly the least awful of the bunch. Forget the sausages, I didn’t want to know how any of that was made.”
Meanwhile, Michael Kruse has a tip: “If you two think that is bad, then definitely don’t google ‘semenology’...”
Seriously. Don’t.
“Zero conflict,” says Jose about this season. Righto, son.
Ian McCourt, doing the MBM on Gary Neville v Lyon (here), has alerted me to the concept of a cocktail made with human tears. I mean...what? Tell me I’m not the only one appalled by this...
So, Diego Costa is back, but there’s no Cesc Fabregas in the Chelsea starting XI. INTERESTING. Perhaps Jose watched this...
Team news
Chelsea
Courtois; Ivanovic, Zouma, Terry (c), Azpilicueta; Ramires, Matic; Willian, Oscar, Hazard; Diego Costa. Subs: Begovic, Cahill, Mikel, Kenedy, Fabregas, Pedro and Remy.
Porto
Casillas; Maxi, Maicon Pereira, Marcano, Martins Indi; Danilo, Imbula, Herrera; Layun, Brahimi, Corona. Subs: Banquillo: Helton, Rúben Neves, Evandro, Varela, Tello, Aboubakar, Bueno.
Referee: Cüneyt Çakır (Turkey)
Preamble
And so, this is ‘it’ for Jose. Or it might be nearly ‘it’. It’s been ‘it’ for him a fair few times now, and it hasn’t quite been ‘it’ yet. Although you would think that, even taking into account Roman Abramovich’s fondness for the old boy, surely an exit from the Champions League, coupled with that whole calamitous league form business, will set off a tolling bell in the Stamford Bridge area. A defeat here will, unless Maccabi Tel-Aviv do something implausible like beat Dynamo Kiev in the other game, send Chelsea out.
In the past Mourinho has been, shall we say, rather disparaging about the Europa League, so if nothing else it would be pretty funny to see him go out, somehow keep his job and have to slum it with the second tier of European competition, like some sort of schmuck. Imagine the indignity of Mourinho having to take his team to play the likes of Molde, Krasnodor, FC Braga or, lord forbid, Tottenham. The indignity!
For what it’s worth, Jose has been talking about wind. Obviously:
I know the wind of the results is an important wind. I know this wind is strong because the results in the Premier League are really bad. But I think the owner knows who I am and what I give to the club, and the owner believes that I am the right person to do the job. And now I don’t speak about the owner, but just about the reality of the situation: you can read these bad results and focus everything on the manager. You can look at the results and look to players with performances below acceptable [levels]. You can look to this and look to the unlucky decisions we’re having in every competition, not just the Premier League. And you can look in many directions and decide this is not a one-man responsibility.”
Wind. There you go. If Chelsea were doing better, people would probably think nonsense like that is mind games or something. As it is, it just looks like nonsense. Which it is.
We shall find out shortly if there is to be more nonsense. Is this ‘it’?
Kick-off: 7.45pm GMT
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Nick will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s the latest from José Mourinho:
José Mourinho has claimed blame for Chelsea’s traumatic campaign does not rest with him alone as his fading champions attempt to avoid the embarrassment of slipping into the Europa League.
The London club confront Porto, with whom Mourinho won the European Cup in 2004, at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night needing a win to top Group G and a draw to ensure progress to the knockout phase, most likely as runners-up on the assumption Dynamo Kyiv beat the section’s whipping boys, Maccabi Tel Aviv. Yet Chelsea have suffered four home defeats this term, the latest of which, by Bournemouth, left them 14 points from the top four. A fifth would risk condemning them to Europe’s secondary competition.
The relentless domestic toils have heaped more pressure on Mourinho to ensure his team’s involvement in the Champions League – with all its traditional implications for a Chelsea manager’s future – extends into the new year. Yet the Portuguese believes he retains the backing of Roman Abramovich, who witnessed Saturday’s loss first-hand, on the basis of his past achievements at the club and despite results having shown no real improvement since the issuing of an unprecedented public vote of confidence in early October.
Read the full story here:
