By dixon9
February 27 2007

Predictions that turn out to happen normally give one a degree of satisfaction, but my own, in the preview of this match do nothing of the sort: Ricardo Quaresema was the danger that I suspected (although I´ll admit, I wouldn´t have been alone in that suspicion!).

The Portuguese was a right twinkle toes and it´s to 20 year old Diarra´s credit that the damage limitation exercise down our right flank could have been disasterous but was, in my view, a reasonable success.

My other concern was the selection of John Terry.  It was doubtful that he was fully healed as his recent back injury had caused a secondary effect on the knee.  It turns out that the knee wasn´t strong enough and he´d put extra although unconscious pressure on his right foot (if you watch the replay of the moment of the injury, you´ll clearly see he stands on his right foot sideways).  The implications of this injury are extremely serious – he will not play in the Carling Cup final this weekend and could be out for a number of weeks. 

We don´t have a league match for the next fortnight so we´ll have to cross fingers, thumbs, toes and any other flexible extremity in the hope that he returns sooner rather than later.  It´s not just the loss of one of the world´s best centre-halfs (halves?) that´s so damaging – it´s also the fact that Essien will have to stand in at the back which means losing his surging power in midfield.  Of course, Boularouz is injured and we made no centre-half cover signing in January.  Personally I hope that Mourinho adopts a braver posture in this matter and plays someone else alongside Carvalho – I doubt that he will unfortunately.

Anyway….enough of my moaning I suppose!  Ashley Cole will be back soon after playing a solid 60 mins for the reserves and Shevchenko now almost counts as an extra player now that he appears to be playing as Shevchenko.

Wednesday’s performance was a superb demonstration in how to play away in Europe.  Despite being under pressure at times with a partisan crowd, we maintained possession very well and kept our heads.

Terry’s withdrawal was about to be compensated with the entrance of 19 year old Mikel Obi but as the youngster was pulling of his tracksuit, Porto scored.  Mourinho reacted in an instant and instead ushered Robben onto the lush turf – a substitution which minutes later proved to be a master stroke.

The Dragon’s goal was scored by Merrles whose deflected shot of Lampard would have no doubt bought a smile to opposition fans who have complained about the amount of deflected Lampard goals.  Porto’s goal had occurred when we had 10 men on the field and occurred almost certainly where Terry would have been.  Lampard had turned sideways before the moment of deflection – Terry would have almost certainly maintained his body squarer to the ball and it’s these details that can decide a match.

With the introduction of Robben, just 5 mins later brought the equalizer.  The young Dutchman weaved his way up the left and played a great ball to Shevchenko.  Shevchenko teed up his shot and produced an excellent measured finish to the far right corner of goal.  This was possibly the moment that Shevchenko has returned and compensates for the loss of Terry.

Porto responded with a shot from Lopez which was saved well by Cech and then Drogba should have done better with his header from Lampard´s free-kick.

Quaresema played constantly to the baying masses – great skill at times, yes – but also quite cynical diving which fortunately went unrewarded by an excellent referee.  Mourinho has supposedly ear-marked the mercurial winger although I understand Atletico Madrid also are pretenders to his signature.  If we do sign Quaresema, I only hope that he loses the habit of pushing the ball into positions where it’s impossible to maintain possession and then falling over.  However, we soon witnessed another example of the danger that this Portuguese player poses when his audacious 30 yard shot with the outside of his right-foot left Cech stranded and only able to watch as the ball, thankfully, shuddered off the bar and out.

Robben was surprisingly withdrawn at half-time although it transpires that he would have played on but had picked up a knock and was removed as a precaution.  Mikel Obi came on and gave much needed support to our right flank.  This substitution proved to be very effective as Quaresema became subdued in the second half. 

The superb Shevchenko (my Chelsea MOM) worried the Portuguese defence and his pass to Drogba didn’t receive the reception it deserved when “The Drog´s” first touch forced him wide before his shot rebounded off the post. 

Towards the end, Lopez was through with only Cech to beat, but our keeper made himself bigger than a fridge, causing the forward to direct his shot wide.

Still, as I said earlier, this was a superb performance from us and Shevchenko has scored his 11^th goal of the season and is now the second highest scorer in European football history. 

Mourinho´s tactical acumen was in evidence during the match – IF only he hadn’t of started with Terry.

Porto (4-3-3): Helton; Bosingwa, Pepe, Bruno Alves, Fucile (Moraes, 65); Lucho, Assuncao, Meireles (M Cech, 58); Lisandro Lopez, Postiga (Adriano, 77), Quaresma. Substitutes not used: Vitor Baia (gk), Ricardo Costa, Alan, Joao Paulo.

Chelsea (4-4-2): P Cech; Diarra, Carvalho, Terry (Robben, 13; Mikel, h-t), Bridge; Essien, Makelele, Ballack, Lampard; Shevchenko (Kalou, 88), Drogba. Substitutes not used: Cudicini (gk), Geremi, Ferreira, Wright-Phillips.

Referee: M Busacca (Switzerland).