Porto beats Chelsea: Despite 1-0 victory over Chelsea, Porto out of UCL competition.
Chelsea have the right to qualify for the 2020/21 Champions League semi-finals despite falling 1-0 to Porto in the second leg of the quarter-final at Stamford Bridge. These results were enough for Thomas Tuchel’s squad which previously bagged a 2-0 win in the first leg.
Realizing the need for a quick goal to chase a two-goal deficit. Porto immediately appeared aggressive and locked the Chelsea defense at the start of the match.
In the 12th minute, heavy pressure from the visitors caused the Blues to lose discipline. When Edouard Mendy made a misfeed so that the ball stole by Corona near the penalty box. But Jorginho reacted quickly to block so that the opportunity only resulted in a corner kick.
Chelsea began to find their rhythm when the game entered the 15th minute, slowly. But surely Thomas Tuchel’s squad tried to get out of the pressure and attack Porto back.
N’Golo Kante played well to lead the counter-attack midway through the first half. He sent a ball to James Reece who failed to maximize the chance after his strike missed the target.
Porto continued to maintain aggressiveness in pursuit of the ball, making it difficult for Chelsea to develop the game further. Porto’s best chance was obtained in the 34th minute when Corona faced one on one with the goalkeeper. But fortunately Corona’s completion didn’t work so accurate so that the goalless score lasted until halftime.
Porto failed to continue dominating because Chelsea managed to reverse the situation by continuing to put pressure on the visitors’ defense. Even the Blues came close to winning through opportunities obtained by Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount.
Coach Sergio Conceicao made changes to change the situation again by bringing in Mehdi Taremi replacing Marko Grujic when the match went on for an hour.
This tactic proved to be right with Taremi being the first player in this match to shoot at goal while trying to take advantage of Corona’s cross. But unfortunately his header was still too weak so Mendy could well anticipate it.
Taremi finally succeeded in breaking the deadlock in this match through acrobatic action with an overhead kick that Mendy couldn’t thwart. The final score changed to 1-0 but the match time was already showing the 95th minute. So that the sensational goal was unable to save Porto from being knocked out.
