Chelsea 1 FC Porto 0 - match report and reaction as Chelsea labour to win

Chelsea’s first Champions League game of the 09/10 campaign was certainly no walk in the park and, with the weather conditions being as they were in the first half, it was more akin to a hike through a rainforest monsoon. The wet weather and 105 minutes of football against a dogged Stoke probably did contribute to some degree, but this was a scrappy Chelsea performance that only just about merited the one nil score line.

Following a brief five minute spell of pressure from Porto, Chelsea dominated the first half. Whilst Chelsea had the lion’s share of possession and the territorial advantage in the first 45 however, the team’s play often lacked purpose, was far too narrow and seemed a little rushed in the final third. Whilst Chelsea were busy misplacing too many passes and struggling to create clear cut chances, Porto were showing signs of their strength on the break with Hulk looking particularly lively down the right.

The weather didn’t help, but at times Chelsea looked a little unstructured: Essien doesn’t have the same discipline as Makalele or even Mikel in holding back and at times it was difficult to pick out precisely what roles Lampard, Kalou and Anelka had been given. Chelsea did miss Drogba. At a fundamental level there was an obvious lack of presence in the Porto penalty box – both Kalou and Anelka both feel more comfortable drifting deep or wide to pick up the ball than receiving it in the box. It was telling that yesterday Lampard was consistently the most likely player to make an appearance in Porto’s area. 

The deadlock was finally broken just after the break however when, having hit another good opportunity straight at the keeper, Anelka reacted quickly to the resulting loose ball to place a powerful shot past both keeper and defender into the net. Things were looking up, but the game was quickly turned on its head as Porto finally started to impose themselves. The Portuguese champions enjoyed most of the possession from that point and could have easily stole an equaliser were it not for excellent defending and goalkeeping from Carvalho (who was excellent throughout the 90) and Cech respectively.

In the last twenty Ancelotti looked to shore up the one nil lead by substituting Kalou for Beletti. Beletti is a great utility player to have on the bench – a very safe pair of hands who doesn’t make mistakes – but whilst it may have been vindicated by the result I wasn’t convinced about the substitution. By that point the Chelsea defence was misguidedly dropping deeper each minute, effectively handing the impetus to Porto. Substitutions not only bring on someone who could change a game, they also send a message to those already playing – and the Beletti substitution did nothing to encourage the team to hold a more advanced line and look for opportunities to kill the game at the other end.

Despite a couple of nervy moments, Chelsea held onto their lead and won their first three points in group D. As I said in my match preview yesterday, the win is all that matters and the result in Madrid made the three points even more valuable. After just one game Chelsea have taken pole position in Group D, but expect and improvement on Sunday when Spurs come to town.

bridgeviews.co.uk man of the match: Ricardo Carvalho. It was like the Ricky of old last night. Tremendous reading of the game, perfectly judged interceptions and breaking up Porto’s play time and time again. Cech played well too, but it was great to see the Portuguese back to top form against his old employers.

What the papers said:

The Times
“Chelsea’s latest crusade in the Champions League began with the first faltering steps on the long road to the final in Madrid next May. Faltering? Only in the sense that their performance dipped in the final half-hour, after Nicolas Anelka had put them ahead. (this was a) result that heightened the perception that his team, even when playing below their best, will be a force to be reckoned with once more this season”

The Telegraph
“Totally in keeping with the monsoon conditions, Chelsea made heavy weather of defeating Porto on Tuesday night. The Italian (Ancelotti) has been brought in by Chelsea’s owner, Roman Abramovich, to get the bridesmaids of the Champions League to the altar and they need to move more confidently up the aisle than this. Occasionally wasteful in possession, occasionally far too narrow, Chelsea were unimpressive. But never mind the quality, feel the quantity of points collected and Chelsea can also take heart from the welcome sight of Joe Cole on the bench, following his long absence with a knee injury.”

The Guardian
“This opening to Group D felt as if it belonged to a far more advanced date in the Champions League calendar. Domestic matches in this stadium seldom keep Cech so occupied. Last night Porto reminded you that they had run Manchester United very close in last season's quarter-final, when it took a goal from Cristiano Ronaldo at Estadio do Dragao to win the match.”

What the managers said:

Carlo Ancelotti
“I think that in the first half we found it difficult because we wanted to pass the ball in the centre and they were very close, in the second half after scoring we had some opportunities to score a second goal. At the end we were not able to keep the ball and control the game. They played very well, but it is normal to have a difficult game because these games have a lot of balance. We can play better, not always can we play our best.”

Jesualdo Ferreira
"It is very difficult for us to swallow this result. Chelsea controlled the game in the first half and were very attacking - but we reacted well. In the first half, the game was more balanced. The goal was a bit unfair on us, coming so soon after half-time. In the second half, we were unlucky not to have scored goals ourselves.”

Was yesterday’s performance good enough? Post a comment…

You might also be interested to read:

• Full competition-by-competition Chelsea 09/10 season stats

Comments

[Pete]

I agree with your comments about the Belletti substitution. Sitting back is just inviting the other team to score.

Hate to bring it up but CL semis last year were the perfect example. They had TEN MEN and were still dominated possession during the end of the match.

Chelsea hardly ever get burned on a fast counter attack. Rather than try and protect the one goal lead by sitting back, try and score a 2nd to put the contest completely out of reach.

[Russell Saunders]

Pete - thanks very much for your comment.

It's painful to think about but I think there's some truth in your comparison with the CL semi (did Guus get one thing wrong!?!?).

I'm a big believer in POSITIVE substitutions in the majoirty of sitautions - sending a message to the players to let them know they're in the game and to play positively. Sending Beletti on just said 'we going to be under the cosh, let's sit back'. Sometimes its the right move, I guess...