Champions League Quarterfinal & Semifinal draw

[Bluesince66]

Both legs of the Champions League quarter-final between Chelsea and Porto will be played at Sevilla’s Estadio Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan stadium next month.

 

[axman2526]

Both legs of the Champions League quarter-final between Chelsea and Porto will be played at Sevilla’s Estadio Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan stadium next month.

Why now? We hosted the game against Atletico just fine and could not play on Spain for the first leg, now we are playing both games in spain? For what purpose? Whole thing is ridiculous.

 

[ForeverCarefree]

Portugal had been on the UK’s red list of countries, which requires a 10-day quarantine in a government-approved hotel on return for any travellers, but it was taken off on March 19.

The UK, however, remains on Portugal’s red list. Portugal has banned inbound flights from the UK and Brazil, and travellers from the UK must currently quarantine for 14-days upon arrival.

 

[axman2526]

Portugal had been on the UK’s red list of countries, which requires a 10-day quarantine in a government-approved hotel on return for any travellers, but it was taken off on March 19.

The UK, however, remains on Portugal’s red list. Portugal has banned inbound flights from the UK and Brazil, and travellers from the UK must currently quarantine for 14-days upon arrival.

Ok that is fine. Same thing happened to Atletico so I get why we cannot play in Portugal, however why do we move our home tie to when we did not have to for Atletico? 

 

[axman2526]

Ok that is fine. Same thing happened to Atletico so I get why we cannot play in Portugal, however why do we move our home tie to when we did not have to for Atletico? 

Also to add to that. If this is the only way to play then it should be a one off match as both games are in a netural stadium.

Leaving it as 2 games with away goals in a neighbouring country completely favours Porto. Now if the tie goes to extra time they get 30 extra minutes to score away goals while we are not at home.

There are no fans there and the season has been long, 2 games like this is a joke.

 

[Gol15]

We had one of our best performances this season vs Sevilla so here hope that we show up and win once again there. We dominated Atletico in that other neutral venue anyway.

 

[Oli]

I agree, we cant look past Porto. We need to adopt what our manager and Pep are doing and focus on winning the next game in front of us. Its a Champions League quarter final, so we best believe the match will be very hard, and hopefully we can make it through. 

Also the ladies Champions League quarter final is on at 1 today I believe. The first leg was very entertaining. 

 

[The Don Antonio]

Also to add to that. If this is the only way to play then it should be a one off match as both games are in a netural stadium.

Leaving it as 2 games with away goals in a neighbouring country completely favours Porto. Now if the tie goes to extra time they get 30 extra minutes to score away goals while we are not at home.

There are no fans there and the season has been long, 2 games like this is a joke.

I was thinking the same thing. With us using a neutral venue for both legs porto actually has the away goals advantage since we will be at home in the second leg. All they have to do is keep it tight in the first leg and try to nick a goal in the second game. Hopefully we win the first game convincingly because if its still close in the second game we will be f**ked.

      I remember this scenario happening in the UCL a while back (Mourinhos first season with us)  when Inter played AC milan in the semifinal. both teams share the same stadium . The first leg ended 0-0 but the second leg ended 1-1 and Milan went through on away goals.

 

[Argo]

Ok that is fine. Same thing happened to Atletico so I get why we cannot play in Portugal, however why do we move our home tie to when we did not have to for Atletico? 

Because there's no sporting exceptions with Portugal's rule and the Porto players will have to totally quarantine if they come to Stamford Bridge.

Rather strange though that Portugal are keeping it with us and not vice versa, this statement sounded unthinkable six months ago but if the UK is put on a quarantine list then every country in Europe bar two should be on one.

 

[axman2526]

Because there's no sporting exceptions with Portugal's rule and the Porto players will have to totally quarantine if they come to Stamford Bridge.

Rather strange though that Portugal are keeping it with us and not vice versa, this statement sounded unthinkable six months ago but if the UK is put on a quarantine list then every country in Europe bar two should be on one.

Designed to assist the Portuguese side perhaps?

 

[Oli]

Big shout out to the Chelsea Women's team who have come through their Champions League quarter final match.

 

[Argo]

Designed to assist the Portuguese side perhaps?

I'm not sure about that. While I'm still very much not taking it for granted the biggest worry I had about this tie was us playing at The Dragao.

Taking home advantage away plays into our hands more i feel.

 

[axman2526]

I'm not sure about that. While I'm still very much not taking it for granted the biggest worry I had about this tie was us playing at The Dragao.

Taking home advantage away plays into our hands more i feel.

They get 30 more minutes for away goals if we go to extra time while not being away. It helped them against Juve even though that game was in Turin I believe.

 

[Scott Harris]

We were right to be excited about our chances after all

 

[weetee]

Very much nitpicking here but I would have appreciated if they'd have kept their iPhones outta the celebration. Tammy was especially in love with it. Probably didn't get the memo.

 

[LongtimerLurker]

We were right to be excited about our chances after all

Rightly so^ and I don't think anyone can say despite our optimism we had a easy run.

The group stage may have been favourable but, that's it after that we faced very good teams.

Athletico>Porto>Madrid>City☆ are top tier opponents not one of those teams finished below 2nd in their domestic leagues. With 2 out of the 4 teams we faced in the KO winning their respective leagues. 

I don't think its bias or an exaggeration to say we were the best team in the competition. Sometimes the underdog wins a tournament and it undermines their achievement. Not in this case we outplayed every team we faced and the only loss came from a wonder goal when we had pretty much wrapped up the contest.

We may have struggled to score goals but we made chances throughout the season and were very hard to break down. 'The best offense is a good defense' rang true for us. Now we need to continue having the best defense and look to make our attack even better.

 

[Jezz]

Never thought we'd pull it off, but I did always believe in the right circumstances we could do serious damage in the knockout stages.

What we experienced three weeks ago is a dream come true!