Chelsea
Chelsea Overcome Porto
Lethal Willian
By Gary Watton
December 10 2015
The recently-returned Courtois and the fit-again Terry kept Porto at arms length at one end while Willian and chums managed to fulfil their part of the bargain at the other end, as Chelsea ended their Champions League qualifying group stage with a surprisingly comfortable win over a Portuguese team that look even worse than us. I for one am not the least bit convinced that Chelsea have "turned a corner". They've been turning corners with every win in recent months and just as frequently turning back again with the subsequent defeat, of which there have been far too many.
Oh well. Mourinho may have stumbled upon his best eleven - at last. Spanish duds, Fabregas and Pedro, were omitted, and they certainly weren't missed. This team needs to be re-appointed for the little matter of a trip to the Premiership leaders, Leicester, next Monday night. That means keeping faith with the erratic Ramires and the equally inconsistent Oscar. However, the latter did well last night, while his fellow countryman Willian promptly recorded his seventh goal of the season, this time uniquely from open play, so he's not just a one trick pony after all. Unfortunately, Costa and Hazard are still struggling to score, although both did come close. Costa remains in a belligerent frame of mind. Along with many others, I'm getting progressively bored with Costa's aggression. It can be laughed away when he's scoring regularly, but when the goals dry up, as they have of late, then his antics look all the more tedious and predictable. Just play the game, Diego.
Anyhow, the champions of England (for we still are!) now progress to the last sixteen as group winners. It means we avoid Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid, but unfortunately the fact that we will be at home in the second leg will lead to another excruciatingly annoying first leg in which we play cautious football. Just once it would be darn good to see Mourinho urge his charges to take the first leg by the throat and leave themselves little to do in the return leg, except turn up. No chance of that, I imagine, especially if we end up paired again with Juventus or PSG. I really could not suffer a repeat of the awful football that we conspired to produce against the latter last year. Will our slow learners learn from their mistakes and tactical blunders of last year? Don't count upon it. Jose will persist with a risk-free approach which only succeeds in ramping up the presssure in the second leg. Home advantage is overrated, and if you have only scored one goal or less in the first leg, then you have little room for defensive error in the home encounter. PSG painfully made us aware of that.
I won't be rejoicing about our journey into the last sixteen. I will reserve my judgment until such happy times as this current bunch string six wins together. Maybe pigs will fly before such an eventuality. Maybe the corner has actually been negotiated this time. However, I suspect that free-scoring Leicester will be less of a pushover than soft touch Porto. Finally, I must congratulate heavy-spending, plastic ManUre for reaching the Europa League. They join Liverpoo and Tottensham there, comprising an unholy trinity of three has-beens of English football fittingly competing in Europe's plate competition.
CHELSEA 2 FC Porto 0; half time: 1-0.
CHELSEA goal scorers: Marcano (own goal); Willian
CHELSEA team: Courtois; Azpilicueta; Ivanovic; Zouma; Terry; Matic; Hazard; Ramires; Costa; Willian; Oscar. Used substitutes: Pedro; Mikel; Remy.
CHELSEA LEADING SCORERS:
Willian seven goals
Costa four goals
Oscar three goals
Ramires three goals
Cahill two goals
Pedro two goals
Remy two goals
Zouma two goals
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10/12/2015 13:51
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