Chelsea survive 'tough fight' to reach semis

SEVILLE • Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel acknowledged that his side's 1-0 defeat by Porto on Tuesday might not have been a spectacle for neutrals but he revelled in their willingness to scrap as they reached the Champions League semi-finals 2-1 on aggregate.

The Blues had the advantage from the first leg and spent most of the 90 minutes cancelling out the reigning Portuguese champions, who finally managed to claw one back two minutes into added time with an overhead kick from Mehdi Taremi for a 1-0 "away" win.

But the Iran striker's individual brilliance came too late as Chelsea reached the last four of the competition for the first time since 2014.

"We accepted what was needed was a tough, tough fight. Maybe on the TV it was not so nice to watch but on the sidelines, it was a very intense game, a very fast game," Tuchel, who led Paris Saint-Germain to last year's final, said.

"It was a pleasure to watch the fight and be on the sideline with them to see them through."

Porto had knocked out Juventus in the last 16 and held Manchester City to a 0-0 draw in the group stage and Tuchel was wary of letting Sergio Conceicao's side play to their strengths at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium in Seville.

"Part of the performance is to not let the other team perform and we did this today," he said. "Until the lucky shot in the last minute, we did not concede any chances. We had to play defensively but also offensively. Normally, Porto are a team who can make other teams underperform.

"It happened to Man City and Juventus. We defended well and deserved a clean sheet. We had the better chances. We could not finish it off with a goal, so we had to hang in there and the guys did that."

Porto, who last reached the semi-finals in 2003-04 when they went on to claim their second European Cup, were left to wonder what might have been.

Both top scorer Sergio Oliveira and Taremi were suspended for the "home" first leg - both games were held in Seville due to Covid-19 travel restrictions between England and Portugal.

Taremi was also only fit for the bench on Tuesday, but the visitors were visibly better when the pair were playing together on the pitch.

Oliveira described his side's exit as "frustrating and sad", lamenting the fact they scored so late in the tie. He said: "With the advantage of two goals, Chelsea came to manage us. They wanted to calm down the tempo and our intensity."

Chelsea will face the winner of the quarter-final, second-leg tie between Liverpool and Real Madrid, with the first game on April 27.

REUTERS