Chelsea’s back-up Serg plan
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.
CHELSEA will face competition from Barcelona if they decide to follow up their interest in Sergio Aguero.
But both clubs view the Manchester City striker, 32, as a back-up plan in case they fail to land Erling Haaland this summer.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is ready to make it his personal mission to sign Borussia Dortmund star Haaland.
But the Blues are looking at alternatives should Dortmund refuse to sell, or Haaland, 20, decides to stay in Germany for another season.
Haaland has most of Europe’s top clubs chasing him – despite Dortmund trying to put them off with an asking price of over £150million.
And Chelsea believe this could be their best chance to land the Norwegian, because competition could be even fiercer in a year’s time.
Barca are also interested in Haaland but would struggle to meet his valuation and are ready to turn to Aguero (above) instead.
The Catalan giants hope a move for the Argentina striker would help keep his close friend and countryman Lionel Messi happy.
And they are preparing a performance-based contract, with huge bonuses on offer for Aguero, whose agent was in Barcelona for talks yesterday.
Juventus have also approached Aguero’s representatives about joining Cristiano Ronaldo in Italy.