Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A BLUES CRUISE
Chelsea seal semi-final spot despite late spectaular goal and Tuchel’s Istanbul mission stays right on course
IT DID not matter how they got there, just as long as they did.
And despite Mehdi Taremi hammering home a sublime overhead kick for Porto in added time, Chelsea cruised through 2-1 on aggregate.
Thomas Tuchel wouldn’t have cared much because Chelsea are now into the semi-finals and a step closer to achieving his lofty targets.
The Blues boss said “now his the time” for Chelsea to win trophies and, in this crazy, unprecedented season, the Champions League is within their grasp.
They will face either Real Madrid or Liverpool in the last four, the competition is opening up and Chelsea will feel they can reach the final in Istanbul on May 29.
Chelsea won it in 2012 when the club was in a mess, Roberto Di Matteo was caretaker-boss and it was far from being a vintage season. They are in better shape now.
And they pulled off a shock back then and you would not bet against them doing it again this time because they are just riding the crest of a wave under Tuchel.
He has made them hard to beat, is getting the best out of his players and, having done the hard part in the first leg, this was all about just completing the job.
It was scrappy, not very entertaining and anyone not supporting Chelsea would have surely turned over to watch the other quarter-final between Paris Saint-germain and Bayern Munich.
That served up the action and drama missing from Chelsea’s game – and yet that is exactly the way Tuchel would have liked it.
The last thing he wanted was to offer Porto a way back into the tie and they kept the Portuguese champions at arm’s length until injury time.
Porto had been billed as tough opponents, and they had knocked out Juventus in the last round. But they never looked like doing the same to Chelsea either last night or even in the first game.
Credit must go to Chelsea who won the first leg 2-0
thanks to goals from Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell when they were professional and efficient. They were the same again back in Seville last night, in the same stadium as last week because of coronavirus restrictions.
The only nervous moment in the first half came when Chelsea keeper Edouard Mendy’s poor clearance fell straight to Jesús Manuel Corona and the Porto midfielder saw his effort charged down by Jorginho.
You expected Porto to step up and at least make a fight of it but they surrendered without so much as a whimper until it was too late.
Tuchel even stood on the pitch at half-time, applauding his players off. The former PSG and Borussia Dortmund boss is experienced enough not to take risks when there is so much at stake.
Porto boss Sergio Conceicao was booked on the touchline as frustrations began to get the better of him.
Chelsea got better as the game wore on, the wing-backs pushed forward and Chilwell provided a lovely cut-back but
Christian Pulisic skewed his shot wide. Porto showed signs of life as substitute Taremi saw a header well saved by Mendy after 65 minutes – their first effort on target.
And out of the blue Taremi gave them something to remember with a fantastic late strike.
Chelsea were able to cruise into their first Champions League semifinal in seven years.
Then they lost to Atletico Madrid and now they must feel it will be possible to go at least one step further.