FC Porto vs Chelsea Preview

Champions League surprise team, Porto, will continue their fairy-tale UCL journey this Wednesday when they entertain Chelsea for the first leg of their quarter-final tie in Sevilla.

The tie has been moved to the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan in Sevilla due to England’s coronavirus restriction and makes this more of a neutral first leg than home advantage for FC Porto.

Porto surprised many when they held Juventus to a 4-4 draw over two legs to qualify for the quarter-finals. At the moment, they are the only remaining team not from any of Europe’s top-five leagues, making them the least favourite team in the competition.

Despite the tag as the weakest team still left in the competition, Sergio Conceicao’s men remain a formidable force in the Champions League. They head into this tie on a run of three consecutive wins in the domestic league. Across their last five matches, the ‘Dragoes’ have won four and lost one.

With their chances of winning the Primeira Liga getting slimmer as they sit in second place, (eight points behind Sporting Lisbon), they will look to make the UCL one avenue for a trophy this season.

Chelsea on their part qualified for this round of the tournament by beating Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid 3-0 on aggregate. The Blues under Thomas Tuchel have become a potent force once again and head into this tie full of confidence.

Although they recorded their first loss under their manager over the weekend—their first loss in 15 games, they register as the favourites for progressing to the next round.

In the 15 games played since Thomas Tuchel took over, Chelsea have kept 12 clean sheets, conceding nine times—their weekend loss being the first time they shipped in more than one goal in a game since the German manager’s arrival. They will look to put that loss behind them and get back to winning ways when they travel to Sevilla.

Chelsea hold a superior head-to-head record in this fixture as they have won four of the last five meetings against FC Porto.