Taremi's Acrobatic Goal Is Not Enough To Take Porto To The Champions League Semi-finals
JAKARTA - Spectacular Porto goal created by Mehdi Taremi in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals was not enough to prevent Chelsea's move to the semi-finals.
Porto only managed to win 1-0 over Chelsea in the second leg held at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium, Sevilla, Spain, Tuesday local time (Wednesday western Indonesia time).
The result was not enough to reverse the quarter-final aggregate win by Chelsea 2-1, with a 2-0 first-leg win at Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan a week ago, UEFA's official website said.
In the semi-finals, Chelsea awaits the winner of another quarter-final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. The second leg will be played at Anfield on Wednesday local time (Thursday GMT), where Real Madrid arrived with a 3-1 win over Liverpool in the first leg.
The first half passed without a single shot on target from either team, but it was Porto who had two good chances as a result of Chelsea's backline.
In the 11th minute, goalkeeper Edouard Mendy unleashed a poor pass that headed straight at Jesus Corona on the edge of the box, luckily the mistake was covered by Jorginho who immediately put up a body to block Corona's firing room.
Meanwhile, in the 33rd minute, Ben Chilwell misjudged Chancel Mbemba's long pass so that the ball bounced in front of Corona. Unfortunately, Corona was less calm when facing Mendy in a one-on-one situation and fired a shot that landed in the stands.
Chelsea looked more attacking in the second half, but Christian Pulisic failed to hit the target when he met Chilwell's pull pass in the 54th minute and three minutes later Mason Mount's shot was blocked by Wilson Manafa who put the ball in front of goal.
Instead, Porto created chances when Corona's cross was met only by Taremi's weak header into Mendy's arms.
The goalless position continued until normal time passed and Chelsea almost asserted their aggregate lead in the second minute of injury time, but Pulisic's shot was deflected off goalkeeper Agustin Marchesin before being swept away by Mbemba.
A minute later, it was Porto who broke the deadlock through Taremi's acrobatic goal, which greeted Nanu's cross with a flying kick to send the ball into the far post area.
Unfortunately, the goal ended only as a consolation goal for Porto in the quarter-finals, as it was Chelsea who qualified for the top four with a 2–1 aggregate win.