JAKARTA - Chelsea will face Porto in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final, Wednesday, April 7 evening. Traveling to Portugal, The Blues brought capital in a 2-5 defeat of West Bromwich Albion in the domestic league.
Coach Thomas Tuchel admitted Chelsea had performed poorly before even being forced to play with 10 players because Thiago Silva was sent off. They lost a landslide in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge, London, Saturday night last week.
"Even though we were 11 against 11, it wasn't our best game, but I didn't expect much after the international break", Tuchel said after the match, quoted by Antara from the official Chelsea website.
"But in that situation we were slow on the counter-attack, had a good chance but were not accurate enough to take advantage of it, and wasted many opportunities to finish the game early", he added.
Chelsea took the lead in the 27th minute through Christian Pulisic but two minutes later Thiago Silva received a second yellow card and the lead was lost late in the first half due to a Matheus Pereira brace.
In the second half, the conditions of 10 against 11 really hurt Chelsea who conceded three more goals, two from Callum Robinson and one belonging to Mbaye Diagne, while only being able to reply once through Mason Mount.
Tuchel said his team could not adapt to playing with an unequal amount.
"But that doesn't mean we have to concede five goals when playing with 10 players, given the quality of this team, but our defense is clearly not at the level it is used to", he said.
"The choice of tactics is clearly my responsibility, there is no other solution but to accept this defeat and look forward to the next match", concluded Tuchel.
Porto in our sights! 🎯👀 #PORCHE #UCL pic.twitter.com/Z5SAsIxhhw
- Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) April 6, 2021
The result against West Brom finished Chelsea's two zero records since Tuchel was handled, as well as a non-goal record at Stamford Bridge in the same period.
Chelsea slipped to fifth in the standings with 51 points, being evicted by West Ham United by one point.
Next week, The Blues will travel to Crystal Palace headquarters.
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