Chelsea beats Porto to qualify for Champs League round of 16

But in this miserable campaign, fortune favored Chelsea after 12 minutes at Stamford Bridge against Porto when Mourinho’s decision to restore Costa to the starting lineup was rewarded. Messi opened the scoring for Barcelona and Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez equalised for Bayer, but the home side couldn’t get the second goal they needed to win.

Jose Mourinho paid tribute to the “pride” shown by his Chelsea players after they defeated Porto 2-0 at Stamford Bridge to book their place in the Champions League knockout stage as Group G winners.

Manager Jose Mourinho has brushed off speculation that he could be sacked if his team fail to progress and Courtois said everyone at the club needed to take collective responsibility for their poor performances.

“We run and we run and we work more than ever and at certain intensity that we never did before”, added Mourinho, who says he is working individually with his strikers. The players were compact and always had initiative, they tried to win even when the draw would have been enough.

According to the official website for this acclaimed tournament, only a few of the 16 spots for advancing past the group stages are open for hopeful teams, as of yesterday’s games.

The Porto star deflected a shot from Diego Costa, which had been saved by Iker Casillas, into the back of his own net.

Mourinho must overturn his side’s domestic troubles to ensure he is still in charge when the competition resumes in February.

He is adamant Chelsea can still reach the Premier League’s top four, despite being 14 points adrift after 15 games. In the Premier League every detail goes against us. The players are feeling that, and it’s a little bit of an attack on their confidence and self-esteem.

“I think every second (place) team wants to play us”, Mourinho said.

“It’s the minimum we can give to our supporters, who are magnificent to us”.

“For me they mean something”. But Porto were well below par and Chelsea could have scored four or five, with the only downer for the Blues coming in the shape of Nemanja Matic’s first half booking, which will rule him out of Chelsea’s last-16 first leg.

NYON, Switzerland (AP) – Spain and England lead the way with three teams each in the Champions League round of 16 draw next Monday.

During Mourinho’s first tenure as Chelsea boss he landed two Premier League titles, but it was under Ranieri that Frank Lampard was signed and John Terry came through from the youth ranks, while William Gallas and Claude Makelele were also Ranieri signings. Then we will be near the top again.