Chelsea squeezed past a battling Porto to reach the Champions League semi-final, despite losing 1-0 at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night.
The Londoners lacked energy and were poor on the night, but despite a lacklustre performance they emerge from the tricky tie to reach the last four of the European Cup for the first time in seven years.
A header from Iranian striker Mehdi Taremi was all that separated the two sides on the night, however Chelsea’s dominant performance in Portugal last week was enough to see them through by the skin of their teeth.
Despite having a mountain to climb, Porto started the match brightly, although the Portuguese side lacked enough quality in the final third of the field to punish Thomas Tuchel’s men.
In what was starting to amount to a dull affair, it wasn’t until the 66th minute that either side had a shot on target, as Taremi’s tame header was saved by Chelsea keeper Edouard Mendy.
With the game petering out and Chelsea’s place in the semis all but confirmed, Porto broke down the right and after a speculative cross Taremi produced a piece of acrobatic magic, finding the back of the net with a bicycle kick from the edge of the penalty box.
Nevertheless, the Portuguese champions had left it too late, and Chelsea managed to hold on to book their place in the next round.
Despite emerging from the tie, with Real Madrid waiting in the semi-finals, Chelsea will know they’ll need to be better than this if they want to reach their first final since winning the competition back in 2012.
Real Madrid managed a 0-0 draw with Liverpool to set up a blockbuster tie with Chelsea in the last 4 of the competition. Tuchel will know his side need to show an improvement on this showing.