Seville (Spain) (AFP)

Despite a sublime goal from Mehdi Taremi on an acrobatic kickback in added time, Chelsea hardly trembled on Wednesday to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League (2-0, 0-1), against a disappointing Porto .

With their two-goal advantage, the Blues controlled the game, leaving little hope for the Portuguese champion who never really played his game, nor managed to shake up a solid defense.

Thomas Tuchel had described Porto as a "proud", "passionate" team that knew "very well what to do" before this match.

We could have expected an offensive festival from Sergio Conceiçao's men, but his starting XI, with Sergio Oliveira titular and Taremi on the bench, leaving the only Moussa Marega in tip, had already cooled somewhat the hopes of fire d 'artifice.

His team pressed a lot, but created little, and the end result is most logical.

We must also recognize in Londoners a certain talent to extinguish any flame in the opponent.

"We agreed to do what we had to do", commented soberly after the match the German coach of the Blues.

"It was a very hard fight, maybe not very good to watch on television, but (...) the guys hung on and in the end we deserved to beat Porto on these difficult 180 minutes," he said. -he judges.

It is not even that Chelsea have particularly sought to defend the acquired advantage, since they presented a completely classic face, with Thiago Silva returning to central defense.

In attack, Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic in support of Kaï Havertz, it was an option offering good prospects to exploit the spaces if Porto went too far into the collision, which never really happened.

But in this configuration after the first leg, the 3-4-2-1 system offered the Blues such security that except for a blunder in the defense - like the recovery missed by Edouard Mendy (11th) that Jesus Corona failed to harness - adrenaline levels were doomed to stay desperately low.

It must also be said that Ngolo Kanté once again reigned supreme over the midfield, never stopping running and raking an incredible number of balls.

Entering the hour mark, the Iranian striker from Porto, Taremi, will have offered the most beautiful image of this double confrontation by resuming a perfect return in full skylight a cross from the right (1-0, 90th + 4).

It was too little, and above all too late, to prevent Chelsea from entering the last four of the C1 for the first time since 2013/2014.

This qualification also allows the Blues to overtake Manchester United in the ranking of the English teams having played the most semi-finals of C1, with 8 participations.

Chelsea will find the winner of the quarter between Real Madrid and Liverpool there.

The Spaniards took a good advantage in the first leg (3-1), but the Reds, used to turnarounds, recently ended their curse at Anfield.

They can still have hope.

© 2021 AFP