2 hours ago, The Don Antonio said:

To be honest after all the euphoria and dopamine rush from the draw yesterday I have come back to earth and actually feel pessimistic about this game. I think we do better as the under dog but we wont have that role against Porto. Thankfully Tuchel has smelt this and tried to put a damper on it.

    We will need Kante to be at his best to pocket Sérgio Oliveira and i think Giroud might be needed to battle Pepe. I just pray we have no injuries during this international break

Giroud can do a job battling Pepe but I also think Werner would give them fits centrally with his runs and his pace. Havertz too.

I don't want to get too carried away and there's always risks posts like these could age really poorly but I feel for the first time since Hiddink 1.0 we have a manager who could set up against almost any situation in Europe tactically. I remember Guus totally outfoxed Rafa (who had a reputation for being excellent tactically in one off ties in UCL) and Pep (only to be robbed by the ref) and I was so confident we'd have beaten United in the final.

Ancelotti had no plan B which was brutally exploited by Jose and Fergie, RDM won it but with the assistant of the gods, Mou 2.0 and Conte were too one dimensional while Lampard wasn't ready.

You’d think we (Chelsea fans) would know better than to tempt fate to such an appalling extent.

Based on what I’ve heard over the past couple of days (not here necessarily) we are now nailed on to get dumped out in the most aggravating manner possible, which presumably will be against Liverpool.

Cautious optimism, please. And if the fates are watching, I hope they don’t use Twitter.

It's not about being optimistic or pessimistic, its about being realistic, we have a good chance of reaching the final and the bookies agree.

If we do get knocked out by Porto, we can concentrate on getting fourth secured.

 

9 minutes ago, coco said:

It's not about being optimistic or pessimistic, its about being realistic, we have a good chance of reaching the final and the bookies agree.

If we do get knocked out by Porto, we can concentrate on getting fourth secured.

 

I backed us 16/1 

57 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

You’d think we (Chelsea fans) would know better than to tempt fate to such an appalling extent.

Based on what I’ve heard over the past couple of days (not here necessarily) we are now nailed on to get dumped out in the most aggravating manner possible, which presumably will be against Liverpool.

Cautious optimism, please. And if the fates are watching, I hope they don’t use Twitter.

Agree 100%,I can't believe all those that are thinking about the final already,I still believe we are a few more players and more time with Tuchel away from a champions league team.We can dream but keep it to inside your heads.

1 hour ago, coco said:

It's not about being optimistic or pessimistic, its about being realistic, we have a good chance of reaching the final and the bookies agree.

If we do get knocked out by Porto, we can concentrate on getting fourth secured.

 

Surely if Man City are favorites Dortmund should be bottom of that list?

I hope the players don't get complacent. This is the Porto side that knocked out Juve after all

Pepe gets injured... Well, lets see if he becomes fits to play agains us 

Bayern go a man down in the first minutes of the game and then put four past a good Stuttgart side and play the whole match like they were the ones having the extra man. I mean they play a ridiculous high line that can be exploited by top teams, but still, attacking wise they are like your favourite DJ on drugs playing at the afterparty for two days straight. Relentless.

My point is though - we had a good draw lads. We do our job we get them in the Final where anything can happen. Over two legs don't know if we'd have stood a chance against them.

Bayern v Paris should be a cracking one, Paris surely have the weapons upfront to hurt them on the counter.

23 minutes ago, petre ispirescu said:

Bayern go a man down in the first minutes of the game and then put four past a good Stuttgart side and play the whole match like they were the ones having the extra man. I mean they play a ridiculous high line that can be exploited by top teams, but still, attacking wise they are like your favourite DJ on drugs playing at the afterparty for two days straight. Relentless.

My point is though - we had a good draw lads. We do our job we get them in the Final where anything can happen. Over two legs don't know if we'd have stood a chance against them.

Bayern v Paris should be a cracking one, Paris surely have the weapons upfront to hurt them on the counter.

Barring a bit of a miracle it really does seem like a race to finish second to Bayern doesn't it? They are a monster.

Anyone feeling still that confident about Porto after the sh*t that has been served against Sheffield? If we play like that, we’re in for a good thrashing... 

4 minutes ago, RMH said:

Anyone feeling still that confident about Porto after the sh*t that has been served against Sheffield? If we play like that, we’re in for a good thrashing... 

Thing with if, buts and maybe's is they can work both ways, if we play like we did against Atletico and at Anfield we will minimum make the final.

Two games are never the same, we won the UCL the same season Alex McLeish, Alan Pardew and Kenny Dalglish all won comfortably at Stamford Bridge.

49 minutes ago, Argo said:

Thing with if, buts and maybe's is they can work both ways, if we play like we did against Atletico and at Anfield we will minimum make the final.

Two games are never the same, we won the UCL the same season Alex McLeish, Alan Pardew and Kenny Dalglish all won comfortably at Stamford Bridge.

You are right about the ifs and buts, but the thing is that there's a pattern building where we are playing great football when playing top teams and we are sh*t when playing crap teams. Hopefully it is because Tuchel is not caring much about the FA Cup or just not giving much credit to lower PL teams (following the same patter against Barnsley) and he will give more credit and prepare better for Porto, but we become a Championship team against strong pressing teams that are energetic.

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.

14 minutes ago, Bluesince66 said:

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.

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.

1 hour ago, ForeverCarefree said:

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? 

2 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

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.

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.

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. 

19 hours ago, axman2526 said:

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.

21 hours ago, axman2526 said:

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.

1 hour ago, Argo said:

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?

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