Chelsea will play for the eighth time in the semifinals of the Champions League, they will do so against the winner of the duel between Liverpool and Real Madrid to try to dispute their third final.
Back in Seville, where they had already met a week ago, he fell to Porto (0-1), but he made good the two goals he scored in the first leg, barely disturbed by a goal from Taremi on the hour, too late for the Portuguese painting.
That epilogue leaves a certain bitterness to the team led by Thomas Tuchel, who did not struggle, but raked more than is advisable in a painting of their potential.
Porto entered the game with the dignity expected of a team that started from the first leg at a disadvantage.
He looked for the ball to manage it, so that it could be played on the opponent's land.
But he never submitted it because Chelsea seemed comfortable without the ball, anchored in his leathery back of three centrals (Azplicueta, Thiago Silva and Rüdiger), with Jorginho ahead for the fine and Kanté for the thick.
The industrious French midfielder directed all the operations that hurt Porto and that had to do, above all, with pressure and counterattack.
Thus he was able to mark the beginning in an action that ended Mount and that was poisoned after repelling the shot of the young Englishman in the Mbemba center.
CHE
0
-
1
OPO
Chelsea Edouard Mendy, Thiago Silva, Rüdiger, Azpilicueta, Ben Chilwell, Reece James, Kante, Jorginho Frello, Christian Pulisic, Kai Havertz (Giroud, min. 91) and Mason Mount (Hakim Ziyech, min. 85) OportoMarchesín, Pepe, Zaidu Sanusi , Wilson Jancó (Nanu, min. 74), Mbemba, Sergio Oliveira (Fabio Daniel Vieira, min. 83), Mateus Uribe, Marko Grujic (Mehdi Taremi, min. 62), Jesús Corona (Luis Díaz, min. 74), Otavinho and Moussa Marega (Evanilson, min. 74)
Goals0-1 min.
92: Mehdi Taremi.
Referee Clément Turpin Yellow cards Sergio Oliveira (min. 45), Jesús Corona (min. 73), Pepe (min. 81), Luis Díaz (min. 87) and Mehdi Taremi (min. 94)
Porto felt warned.
Surely it already was.
And he did not dare to launch himself in a whirlwind for the goal that would bring him back to the tie.
He fumbled before the withdrawal of Chelsea, he was annoyed by the flank that the Mexican Corona was attacking, who was over-rushed in the two options he had against Mendy.
In short, Oporto ran into a wall, also with its own limitations to catch up with a rival who did not expose more than necessary.
Tuchel had designed a team to wait, steal and hit.
He gave up the
classic
nine
so that Havertz could act as a hairpiece and threw Pulisic and especially Mount from the second row.
Each wave sowed panic in the port defense.
Chelsea was not lavished either so that the fires required many hoses.
Thus, with half an hour to play, coach Sergio Conceiçao wanted to change the rhythm.
He called Taremi, a Herculean Iranian forward, and placed him next to Marega, another Samson.
The plan consisted of taking the ball to finishing areas through a shortcut, but that route did not appear, so a quarter of an hour later he looked for other nuances with the ability of Evanilson and Luis Díaz near the top.
The centers arrived, the corner kicks, the punches in the air from an inferior team that had the character to rebel and more than evident limitations to hurt a superior rival.
It marked him, with a Chilean prodigy from Taremi.
But it was too late for there to be at least emotion.
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