Chelsea sink Porto to advance

A refreshed Chelsea side booked their place in the last 16 of the Champions League with a 2-0 win over Porto at Stamford Bridge this evening.

Jose Mourinho’s side took the lead early on in front of the Shed End in slightly fortuitous circumstances when Diego Costa latched on to Eden Hazard’s through ball.

As the Spanish striker bore down on goal, his shot deflected off Iker Casillas and into the unwitting Ivan Mercano, who couldn’t prevent the ball from deflecting into the back of the net, despite the best efforts of Maicon to clear it.

Costa, back in the Chelsea side and prowling the pitch with typical menace, then picked up a booking for a needless trip on the Porto goalkeeper.

However, the Chelsea forward showed all his best qualities in Chelsea’s second goal as he held up the ball, before playing in Hazard, who picked out Willian on the edge of the area. From there the Brazilian winger, who has been in excellent goal-scoring form this season, drilled a low effort inside the near post.

The lively Hazard then broke quickly and sent Costa through on goal with a defence-splitting pass, but just as Costa was set to pull the trigger, Danilo Pereira bundled him off the ball.

Porto manager Julen Lopetegui rang the changes late on in a bid to salvage something from the game, and they almost pulled one back when substitute Cristian Tello’s effort from the edge of the box was tipped around the post by Thibaut Courtois.

However, the damage had already been done, and Hazard almost put the gloss on a comfortable Chelsea victory when he burst into the box and crashed an effort against the near post in the dying minutes.

The result means Chelsea finish top of Group G, with 13 points from their six games.