UCL: Chelsea Ease Through As Dynamo Kyiv Edge Maccabi
As everything is drawn out, a win for either Chelsea or FC Porto will assure them the top spot in the table and a place in the knockout stages as winners of Group G.
Spain forward Diego Costa netted their only goal in the previous three Premier League games but he has been lacklustre and did not start either of the last two matches, with Eden Hazard playing as the main striker.
Hazard has not scored a single goal for Chelsea this season despite appearing in every single Premier League and Champions League fixture.
“The Premier League boss said in an interview it would be good for the league if Chelsea were not champions”, Mourinho said. But Porto were well below par and Chelsea could have scored four or five, with the only downer for the Blues coming in the shape of Nemanja Matic’s first half booking, which will rule him out of Chelsea’s last-16 first leg.
Mourinho pointed to Chelsea’s match statistics, saying “records” had been broken in three consecutive matches, but then pointed to the lack of goals. The piece of luck that we had in our first goal – it is a great pass and a great move – but we are a bit lucky with the rebound.
Willian (centre) celebrates with Chelsea teammates after scoring against Porto in the UEFA Champions League.
“The best teams in Europe are in the Champions League“.
Mourinho maintains belief in Chelsea’s chances of finishing in the Premier League’s top four, despite being 14 points behind Manchester United.
A draw would be enough to take Jose Mourinho’s side through to the next round, but a defeat could end the EPL side’s hope if Dynamo Kyiv were to beat Maccabi Tel Aviv.
“I think everybody wants to play us”, Mourinho added.
Chelsea’s win means they finish top of their group, and their opponents in the next round could be any of the following: Paris Saint-Germain, PSV Eindhoven, Benfica, Juventus, Roma or Gent.
To win the Champions League I think it is obvious that a team struggling so much like we are we are not obviously a candidate to win the Champions League.
The lively Brahami saw a fine effort deflected wide before Costa missed a great opportunity to seal the win when he raced through on goal but was adjudged to have been fairly bundled off the ball by Danilo when he was about to pull the trigger.
With Dynamo Kyiv winning in the group’s other game, Porto needed to attack and Thibaut Courtois had to keep out strikes from Yacine Brahimi and Cristian Tello.
Chelsea’s set-piece play as a whole will need to be taken with an intent to score as a good dead ball could be all Chelsea needs to qualify for the latter stages of the competition.