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Football London
Football London
Sport
Lee Wilmot

The Chelsea player through to Champions League quarter-finals before Atletico Madrid showdown

Chelsea will be hoping to make it through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League next week.

The Blues are 1-0 up on Atletico Madrid from the first leg and favourites to reach the last eight under Thomas Tuchel.

But, before that, there is already representation from the Blues i the last eight.

That is because loanee Malang Sarr has made it through to the quarter-finals in quite extraordinary circumstances already.

Sarr joined the Blues from Nice last summer and was immediately loaned out to Porto in Portugal for the season to get some game-time ahead of a return to Stamford Bridge.

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Sarr has had sporadic time on the pitch for the Portuguese side but he was on the pitch for one of their great Champions League nights on Tuesday as they dumped Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus out of the competition.

The Chelsea loanee was a 62nd minute replacement for Otavio after Mehdi Taremi was sent off for the away side, but Porto took the game into extra-time against the Italian champions and won it on away goals with a 3-2 victory and 4-4 on aggregate.

Sarr turned in a fine performance in what was almost entirely a rearguard action but for Sergio Oliveira's free-kick goal that turned out to be the difference between the sides over the two legs in the end.

Sarr will be looking forward to the quarter-final draw next Friday, hoping not to draw Chelsea, if they get through against Atletico Madrid, so he can play in it.

Thomas Tuchel will have enjoyed what he saw of Sarr and will be relishing the opportunity to work with the defender back in west London next season.

The Chelsea fans certainly enjoyed it too.

They too are looking forward to Sarr's return to Stamford Bridge.

Will he come back as a Champions League winner though? Chelsea will be hoping not on that front, with designs on winning the trophy themselves.

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