The Chelsea FC Blues will host FC Porto at the Stamford Bridge Stadium in Fulham, London on Tuesday, March 6th at 2:45 pm. After playing a scoreless draw at the Estádio do Dragão, this match for the second leg of UEFA Champions League will be an action packed game in order to bring forth a winner that will go through to the next round.
Both FC Porto and Chelsea FC preserve hopes of sealing a UEFA Champions League quarter final spot after sharing two goals in an eventful but tied up first leg at the Estádio do Dragão.
Since José Mourinho departed from Porto two years ago after guiding them to success in this competition, the Portuguese champions have not progressed beyond the last 16. The conviction that it will be third time lucky was increased when Raul Meireles broke the deadlock in the 12th minute.
Chelsea quickly evened the game on a strike by Andriy Shevchenko though and could have also earned victory through Didier Drogba when he hit the post late on. The visitors will have to settle for a draw which works, but an early injury to John Terry might overshadow any possible positive results at home.
Michael Ballack should have performed better when Claude Makelele's cross found him in open space before Terry twisted his ankle after an inoffensive clearance. Having recent memories of Chelsea's on pitch troubles without their talismanic captain fresh in the memory, Mourinho looked to give him as much injury time as possible to recover. Plan backfired. While Terry lay on the sidelines, Raul Meireles made his breakthrough, reacting quickest to Makelele's weak headed clearance and volleying a cross past Petr ÄŒech via the boot of Frank Lampard.
This quieted the enthusiastic home crowd but Porto responded well after a makeshift defense in Michael Essien and right back Lassana Diarra, who made his first start in the competition, struggled to cover the lively Ricardo Quaresma and Hélder Postiga.
Only the quick reactions of goal keeper Petr ÄŒech denied Lisandro López after a stellar move by Hélder Postiga midway through the half. Before that it was crowd favorite Ricardo Quaresma who raised the most cheer when he sparked the ball off the top crossbar with a stunning long range missile using the outside of his boot.
Porto began the second period in a similar fashion as they searched to repeat the 2-1 reverse dealt to Coach Mourinho on his first return to the Dragão two seasons ago.
The Premiership title bearers slowly found their form though, with Mikel who had come on for Robben at the break providing a stronger more determined midfield that cut off the supply to Porto's dangerous left flank, freeing up space for Chelsea's quiet strikers.
Drogba posted his first shot of the game halfway through the second half and though the effort trickled harmlessly wide it spurred Drogba on. In the 32nd minute of the second period the Ivorian might have stolen a win when he bombed the post from with an acute angle shot but Porto held on.
