Well, it weren’t pretty but seeing as we’ve clinched top spot in the group, you’d have to say it was effective.
I suppose with us both having qualified for the knockout stages already, the sort of game we got was the sort of game we expected. We started off ok with efforts from Malouda, Drogba and Ballack, but to be fair, Porto had the better first half with Petr Cech at fault for giving away second chances before redeeming himself. It was just one of those nights where our attacking edge went walkabouts and appeared to have taken our passing ability with it.
In terms of tempo, if the first half was a stroll, we upped it to a brisk walk in the second, with Deco shooting just wide in the 52nd minute. Michael Essien came off the bench for Ballack – who really wasn’t having one of his better nights – in the 67th minute and just two minutes later Nicolas Anelka headed us in front. Florent Malouda, whose crosses seemed to have been more miss than hit all night, picked up a Yuri Zhirkov pass and finally put in a cross the stooping Anelka could get on the end of - and that turned out to be enough to secure the win.
Overall though, a pretty even game that we just about deserved to win and were pretty lucky to get out of without adding to our injury list bearing in mind Porto weren’t exactly genteel.
Bring on Arsenal.
TEAMS
PORTO: Beto, Sapunaru, Rolando, Bruno Alves, Pereira, Belluschi, Fernando, Raul Meireles, Varela, Falcao, Rodriguez.
Subs: Nuno, Guarin, Valeri, Hulk, Maicon, Farias, Costa.
CHELSEA: Cech, Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry, Zhirkov, Mikel, Ballack, Malouda, Deco, Anelka, Drogba.
Subs: Turnbull, Ashley Cole, Essien, Joe Cole, Kalou, Alex, Belletti.
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