Chelsea 2 Porto 0: match report - Willian to the rescue again for Jose Mourinho

For one night, at least, Jose Mourinho was king again, Chelsea were top of the table and Roman Abramovich was smiling. This was like the good old days of May.

What has been a dismal season for Chelsea was finally lifted with qualification to the knockout stage of the Champions League as Group G winners thanks to Mourinho’s two saviours, Willian and own goals.

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Willian took his personal tally to seven against Porto and the Brazilian is still followed by own goals in the Chelsea scoring charts, as Ivan Marcano put through his own net.

But Stamford Bridge did not care who or even which team were scoring Chelsea’s goals against Porto, just as long as the Blues did not suffer yet another humiliation.

Even the Porto fans, who are still grateful for their 2004 Champions League success, seemed pleased for Chelsea manager Mourinho as their team were relegated to the Europa League.

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The travelling supporters joined the Chelsea fans with a loud chorus of ‘Jose Mourinho’ as the final whistle approached before a rendition of ‘Stand up for the special one’ echoed around all four sides of the ground.

Whether the euphoric mood lasts after the next Premier League game against Leicester City remains to be seen, but, just as it did in 2012, the Champions League is providing Chelsea with some much-needed respite.

With Chelsea just two points above the Premier League relegation zone, Mourinho admits his team are underdogs in the Champions League but still believes they could follow the example of his Porto and Inter Milan teams, and lift the trophy.

Possession stats

“To win the Champions League, it’s obvious that a team who are struggling as much as we are is not a candidate to win,” said Mourinho. “You have the best teams in Europe. But, when we won with Porto in 2004, we were not candidates. When we won at Inter in 2010, we were not candidates. When we were candidates, we lost two semi-finals with Real Madrid and two with Chelsea. So let's see. You never know.”

Chelsea can draw Roma, Gent, Paris Saint-Germain, PSV Eindhoven, Benfica or Juventus in the last-16 and Mourinho admits Chelsea will be the draw everybody wants.

“I think every second a team wants to play us,” said Mourinho. “They don't want to play Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico, Bayern. I think every team finishing second will want to get us or Zenit.”

Even the officials were on Mourinho’s side on Wednesday night, as additional assistant referee Baris Simsek awarded Marcano’s 12th-minute own-goal in what was a rare case of an official behind the goal making a decision.

Eden Hazard played Diego Costa through on goal, but the 27-year-old looked less than convincing with just Iker Casillas to beat.

Fortunately for Costa, however, his predictable effort was kicked against Marcano by Casillas and the ball bounced back towards goal. Maicon desperately tried to clear the ball off the line, but Simsek, correctly ruled it had crossed the line.

Costa certainly returned to the starting line-up with renewed vigour, but the striker’s confidence in front of goal remains worryingly low.

Chelsea attacking stats

He saw Casillias produce a good save to stop his angled drive, but Costa produced his best Fernando Torres impression to squander two wonderful opportunities in the second half.

First, Costa failed to find the pace to sprint away from Danilo and, instead of shooting, he rather pathetically attempted to win a penalty. Then, the Spain international succeeded only in shinning the ball straight to Casillas as he attempted to bring it under control.

Mourinho clapped encouragingly each time Costa blundered, but it was another frustrating game for the man who has only scored seven times since January.

“Lack of confidence, yes clearly,” said Mourinho. “But his attitude was very good and his movement was much better. The goals are coming.”

While Costa may have lost his goal touch, he still retains his sense of devilment and was booked for leaving a boot in on Casillas during the first half. Nemanja Matic also earned a yellow card that rules him out of the first leg of Chelsea’s last-16 match.

Having fallen behind and needing to score at least twice, Porto had to try to go on the front foot in the second half but it was Chelsea who were back out of the traps the quickest, as Willian tested the palms of Casillas with a drilled shot.

The Spaniard, though, could do nothing to stop Willian extending Chelsea’s advantage in the 52nd minute and effectively securing his team’s path into the knockout stage.

Costa worked the ball to Hazard, who played in Willian and the Brazilian smashed a shot into the back of the net to score his first goal of the season from open play, with all of his previous six coming from free-kicks.

Porto manager Julen Lopetegui responded to Willian’s strike by sending on Vincent Aboubakar and Ruben Neves, but the change appeared too late with the visitors now requiring three goals to go through.

Porto rallied, with Yacine Brahimi seeing a curling shot headed away from goal by Branislav Ivanovic, but Chelsea should really have added to their advantage before the final whistle as Costa failed to cap what was otherwise a good night.

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