Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
The former England centre-back, 35, returned to training this week after missing the Premier League games against Tottenham and Bournemouth.
Brazil midfielder Ramires is also available after a knock but former Porto striker Radamel Falcao remains out.
Editor’s Note: For Jose Mourinho winning the Champions League this season will probably provide the only route into next season’s competition, the only thing is he has to make sure his Chelsea side doesn’t lose to one of his former clubs FC Porto.
Talk of the sack has been picked up again after Chelsea’s home league defeat to Bournemouth, already their 8th of the season and question is if Chelsea were to drop out of Europe’s top club competition would he then be swiftly shown the exit door
For now all the talk of sackings is pure conjecture as for as long as Chelsea are still in the tournament then Mourinho will still find himself in gainful employment but the hurdle of FC Porto is going to be a particularly one to climb.
Chelsea lost in their first encounter and have to make sure they don’t repeat the feat tonight if they are to advance to the Round of 16. One of the big questions will be whether Diego Costa starts another game on the bench or whether Mourinho will persevere with his fluid unit of attacking midfielders, a unit that must be said hasn’t actually delivered a goal in it’s 2 matches of operation.
They go up a Porto side who are currently 2nd in the Portuguese League but they themselves are also not safe of qualification. If Chelsea and Dynamo Kiev were both to win then that would see Porto drop into the Europa League position.
Tonight a draw would be mutually beneficial for both teams, I’m not saying there’s going to be any match fixing going on but don’t be surprised if both teams comfortably play out a draw. If Porto decide to go against the script and land a sucker punch on Jose Mourinho then Tomorrow’s papers are going to be a very interesting read.
