Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LION KINGS
First Foden.. now goal-hungry England stars Mason and Chilwell are quarter-final heroes
MASON MOUNT became a recordbreaker as Chelsea put one foot in the Champions League semi-finals.
The England midfielder’s first-half strike against Porto made him the club’s youngest goalscorer in a knock-out tie in the competition. And his Three Lions colleague Ben Chilwell added a second late on to kill off the Portuguese side.
But Mount is not counting chickens, saying: “A good win but it’s only halfway.”
THE doubts and jibes have long since been dismissed.
Once again, Mason Mount stepped up and showed he has become an invaluable, unstoppable force for both Chelsea and England.
This was Mount at his best, with an exquisite finish in Seville to help give Chelsea a huge advantage in their quarter-final tie with Porto.
Incredibly, it was
Mount’s first goal in the
Champions League, the midfielder also becoming the youngest Chelsea player to score a goal in a knockout tie, aged 22 years and 87 days.
Mount just keeps on improving, keeps on making huge strides and has convinced one manager after another of his quality as a top-class attacking midfielder.
They called him a ‘teacher’s pet’ when Frank Lampard would pick him every week and the same taunt was used whenever England boss Gareth Southgate picked Mount ahead of Jack Grealish. Now Mount starts every England game.
Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel left Mount out of his first starting line-up and yet, ever since, he has become arguably the most important player under the German’s reign. Now there is no mistaking his class.
That is because Mount brilliantly combines skill, technique and ability with workrate, and that is what makes him such a huge favourite of every manager. It is rare you get such industry in a flair player, but Mount showed both sides of his game with the Blues’ 33rd-minute opener.
Chelsea midfielder Jorginho stepped forward, played a nice short pass into Mount, and what happened next underlined the No.19’s ability. He took the ball into his body, turned beautifully to create the space on the edge of the box, then fired a brilliant low shot across Porto keeper Agustin Marchesin.
The ball flew into the far corner, and although
Marchesin should have done better than stick out a leg in hope, it should not take anything away from Mount.
It was a huge moment. Both of these quarter-final ties are being played in the Ramon Sanchez-pizjuan Stadium because of Covid restrictions and you can almost forget which team is at home and who is classed as being away.
Luckily for Chelsea, they were the away team in the first leg, they get the advantage, even if playing backto-back ties like this in the same stadium feels utterly bizarre. But it is a terrible shame neither can play in their own stadium, let alone be in
front of their own fans. Porto knocked out Juventus in the last round, are a hard side to beat, and Chelsea deserve real credit for overcoming the reigning Portuguese champions.
Porto were a real threat at times, Zaidu Sanusi turning over an early gilt-edged chance, and then former Real Madrid hardman Pepe was denied by Edouard Mendy, who also made a smart block from Moussa Marega. Chelsea sealed victory in the dying minutes. Sub Christian Pulisic hit the underside of the bar before Ben Chilwell doubled their lead.
Chilwell seized on a Porto defensive mix-up, stormed through and then rounded the keeper, before slotting into an empty net to put Chelsea firmly on course for the semi-finals.