Chelsea FC will visit FC Porto at the Estádio do Dragao in Porto , Portugal on Wednesday, February 21st for the first leg of their fixture in the knock out stage of the UEFA Champions League starting at 2:45pm EST.
In each of the past two seasons FC Barcelona has stood in the way of Manager José Mourinho at this stage of the UEFA Champions League. This time around the Chelsea FC coach comes face to face with another of his former employers as the English champions take on their Portuguese counterparts FC Porto in the first knockout round.
It is the second time Mourinho has confronted the team he conducted to an unanticipated success in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League. The teams met in the group phase the next season, the Portuguese club's first at Stamford Bridge , and in each case the home team prevailed.
Mourinho's current team won the first game 3-1 with scores from Aleksei Smertin, Didier Drogba and John Terry while Benni McCarthy got Porto 's reply. Nevertheless, the two time European champions got their revenge at the Estádio do Dragão two months after when McCarthy scored again, a game winner added Diego’s earlier tie up Damien Duff's opener for the visitors.
Chelsea had never been matched up against Portuguese opponents in European competition before the 2004/05 games but their counterparts who are chasing a place in the last eight for the first time since they lifted the trophy three years ago are more accustomed to English sides.
Jesualdo Ferreira's squad met with Arsenal FC in this season's group stage and qualified from Group G as runner up behind the London club. The secured their place on Matchday 6 with a nil draw at home to Arsène Wenger's club which left them even with their visitors on eleven points.
It was Porto 's second goalless draw in their three home games; the other match, against Hamburger SV, ended 4-1 in their favor. Lisandro López struck twice in that fixture along with Lucho González. They are the club's joint top scorers in the competition this season with three goals.
The Arsenal result means Porto remains undefeated in their eight home games against English visitors. They have yielded four wins and four goalless draws. Before the win against Chelsea they had matched the challenge of Manchester United FC in the 2003/04 first knockout round first leg by the same score.
Instead Chelsea won Group A with 13 points cut out from four wins and a draw in their six fixtures mostly thanks to five goals from Didier Drogba. He is the competition's joint leading scorer this season. The English champions dropped points in both of their last two away games, drawing 2-2 in Barcelona and losing 1-0 against Werder Bremen .
Chelsea dropped out of last season's competition at this stage, losing 2-1 at home to Barcelona with a 1-1 draw in Spain that was not enough to avoid elimination. It was the first time they had failed to reach the UEFA Champions League quarter finals in their fourth attempt at winning Europe 's premier club prize. The return game will be at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday 6 March.
Sportbet.com has FC Porto at home +215 with a draw of +195 . I love Drogba’s Chelsea +110 . I also like the over 2 -115 while the under 2 -125 is not for me. On the Asian, Chelsea -½+110 is not my pick. Porto +½-150 is more like it, although I hate laying anything over -140 .
