Chelsea travel to the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan stadium – home of Spanish side Seville – to play their ‘away’ Champions League Quarter Final tie against last season’s Primeira Liga champions Porto.
Because of the current travel restrictions that exist in Portugal, the clowns in charge at UEFA have decided to hold both the home and away legs of this in a country that has apparently got a rising rate of infection.
This will be the ninth time the two teams have met with all encounters having taken place in the Champions League and the last time Chelsea played at the Estadio do Dragao was in 2016 in the second round of group stage games.
A goal scored by Willian on the stroke of halftime saw the two sides go in for the break level with the score 1-1 but a 52nd-minute strike from the hosts proved to be enough to win them the game.
The previous three visits in 04/05, 06/07 and 09/10 resulted in a defeat, a draw and a victory respectively, with Nicolas Anelka scoring the only goal of the game in a Champions League campaign in which Chelsea went out at the hands of Inter Milan in the first knockout round.
Saturday saw Thomas Tuchel’s side suffer their first defeat since his arrival, a disastrous 5-2 defeat to relegation-threatened West Bromwich Albion.
Prior to that meeting, Chelsea had only conceded twice in the German’s first 14 games since taking over from Frank Lampard.
Whilst the club’s main priority is finishing in one of the four Champions League places, this game against Porto begins a sequence of four fixtures including three cup matches that will rank high in importance for many supporters.
When they return from Spain, the weekend will see Chelsea face Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park before the return leg next Tuesday with Porto.
That will be followed by a difficult task against Manchester City on the Saturday in the FA Cup Semi-Final at Wembley.
As far as the game against Porto is concerned, I will be placing my money on over 3.5 goals in the game which is currently 3.90 with our friends at FansBet.
About the Author
Londoner David Johnstone is a home, away and European away Chelsea supporter and has missed just six matches since 2001 (although he’s quick to state there are plenty of other supporters with better attendance records than him).
He has been involved with the fanzine scene at Chelsea since around 1991 and started the ‘cfcuk’ fanzine in 1999 which was, until Mr Abramovich bought the club in 2003, named ‘Matthew Harding’s Blue And White Army’.
David was also responsible for forming both the Chelsea Supporters’ Group and the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust which are the main two bodies that represent the followers of Chelsea FC and take their concerns to those running the club.
A founder of the highly regarded Chelsea FanCast weekly podcast (but is no longer involved) and responsible for the crowd surfing banners and supporter displays that are seen in the Matthew Harding Stand at Stamford Bridge on matchday.
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