Everyone will want to play Chelsea, says Jose Mourinho

The ESPN FC panel discuss whether or not Chelsea‘s victory over Porto actually means anything.

Although relieved to steer Chelsea through the group stage of the Champions League, Jose Mourinho believes his team will not be feared in the last 16 during this unexpectedly poor season for the club.

With a slice of the luck that has deserted Chelsea so often this season, the ball rebounded off Porto defender Marcano and into the goal.

Arsenal needed to beat Olympiacos by two clear goals to advance from group F.

“The Champions League is a tough competition and there are a lot of good teams still in it but I hope that we can do something”, said midfielder Nemanja Matić. Chelsea can play Paris Saint-Germain for a third straight season in the Champions League. I was talking about the practical side of things.

The Portuguese will be happier with his team’s form in Europe, where they have four wins, a draw and one defeat en route to the knockout stages and can take heart from an encouraging performance from striker Diego Costa.

Costa again started on the bench in the weekend defeat to Bournemouth before returning to the starting line-up for Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Porto which earned the Blues a place in the last 16 of the Champions League.

He said: “We are not lucky in the Premier League”.

Coming off a 2-1 win over Pacos de Ferreira in their last fixture, Porto finds themselves second on the Primeira Liga table.

“When we were candidates with Real Madrid we lost two semi-finals and the same with Chelsea, so you never know”. The first goal was obviously an own goal but his movement was great when the pass arrived. You could immediately feel the lack of confidence because the first thing he does is not to look at the goal.

Iker Casillas has shrugged off criticism seemingly aimed at him by the official Chelsea website in the build-up to the Champions League clash between Porto and the Blues on 9 December. “I’m sure he’s the right man to continue here at Chelsea”, he said. Ranieri backs Chelsea to recover “We need what we are having now regularly, which is lots of clean sheets, very few goals conceded”.