Chelsea FC Defeat Porto: 5 Things We Learned
After Chelsea FC secured a vital Champions League victory over Porto, here are five things that we learned.
The Blues waltzed to a surprisingly comfortable 2-0 victory over Jose Mourinho’s former side, as they confirmed their progression to the Round of 16. While this may not be a corner turned for Chelsea, it was certainly an encouraging and promising display.
So with that in mind, here are five things that we learned from Wednesday’s night performance.
1. Jose Won A Battle Of Tactics!
Normally you don’t raise an eyebrow too high when an opposing manager is outwitted by Jose Mourinho. He’s The Special One, he’s the magician, he’s the match whisperer. This season’s Mourinho has been flailing due to opposing managers’ refusal to engage him. It’s an odd tactic to ignore a man as polarizing as Jose Mourinho, but it’s been working.
Porto manager, Julen Lopetegui, thought he’d try to show everyone his brilliance by assuming Jose was wounded and lost enough to be outsmarted. His aim was to allow Porto’s primary danger man, Yacine Brahimi, to play more centrally—unleashing him upon the whole of Chelsea’s defense. This, as it turned out, was stupid.
As great as Brahimi is, expecting him to get through Ramires, then Nemanja Matic, then Kurt Zouma, then John Terry and then Thibaut Courtois played right into Mourinho’s hands. The Chelsea manager essentially set his team up to not be beaten centrally. Instead of having Brahimi run at the shaky and confidence-lacking Branislav Ivanovic, he was easily contained in the middle of the pitch.
A side effect of this was that it gave Chelsea channels to run into without the fear of losing the ball on the flanks to the most dangerous man wearing a white shirt. Costa got behind the defense in these channels and Willian’s goal came from a throw-in in which he simply walked by his defender before starting a sprint as Hazard received the ball.
As frustrated as this defiant Mourinho has been, it was nice to be reminded of what he can do.
Next: 2. Kurt Zouma Is Terrifying