Porto 2-1 Chelsea, Match Review.

Chelsea suffered a fifth defeat of the season, this time in Europe as Porto took a 2-1 win at home with boss Jose Mourninho continuing to drop key players.

Porto got themselves ahead in the 39^th minute thanks to an Andre Andre close range finish. Chelsea managed to pull one back in first half stoppage time, the impressive Willian scored a fabulous free kick that levelled the encounter going into half time. Maicon assured that Porto would be taking all the points though, he struck in the 52^nd minute with a header from close range. Chelsea saw their penalty claims in the latter stages of the match turned down though, replays suggesting that it was a clear penalty after the ball had struck Ivan Marcano on the hand inside the box.

Eden Hazard and Nemanja Matic joint John Terry on the bench as Jose Mourinho mentioned before the game that none of his players were ‘untouchable’. Radamel Falcao, Loic Remy and Oscar did not travel with the squad to Portugal. Chelsea had two good chances early on to open the scoring, only for veteran keeper, Iker Casillas, to deny the away team. Cesc Fabregas had the first chance, Casillas diving down well to keep out the Spaniard. Chelsea really should have opened the scoring minutes later when Willian put Pedro through on goal who could not get enough power in his shot, giving Casillas no problem in the Porto goal.

Chelsea were made to pay for those two chances when Porto broke the deadlock. Yacine Brahimi easily beating stand in Chelsea skipper, Branislav Ivanovic, and getting a shot away that stand in keeper, Asmir Begovic, got a good hand to, to prevent it ending up in his net, unfortunately for him the ball fell to Andre who converted home to put Porto ahead. Chelsea managed to get back on level terms though in first half stoppage time, Willian curling home a free kick from the edge of the box that happened to be the last action of the first half.

It only took Porto seven minutes into the second half to regain the lead, Ramires lost Maicon in the box and he headed home from the corner to put Porto back in front. Diego Costa saw his brilliant curling effort strike the bar from outside the box. Porto looked the most likely to score after that effort and they would have, if it wasn’t for the impressive Begovic between the sticks for Chelsea. Miguel Danilo hit the bar with nine minutes remaining for Porto, completely beating Begovic.

Chelsea were denied a late penalty when the ball struck Ivan Marcano on the hand as he stopped Costa’s pass inside the box. Chelsea have now lost more games this season than the whole of last campaign. It’s going to be a hard rut to get out for Chelsea, next up for the Blues are Southampton at home, if they want to retain the title then they’ll need a win on Saturday early evening.