Chelsea v Porto preview

15 September 2009 10:19
Chelsea begin their pursuit of an elusive UEFA Champions League trophy with a home game against Porto on Tuesday evening. The Blues have come close to claiming European glory in each of the past two seasons, only to be denied in dramatic circumstances. Manchester United prevailed on penalties in the final of the 2007/8 competition, while Andres Iniesta's late strike sealed a semi-final victory for Barcelona last term. Managers have come and gone since Russian owner Roman Abramovich arrived at Stamford Bridge and Carlo Ancelotti is the latest to try and deliver the biggest prize in club football. The Italian tactician brought European success to AC Milan and has made a perfect start to his Chelsea reign with five consecutive victories in the Premier League. Ancelotti insists he was not just appointed to help the club win the Champions League but he will be desperate to get off to a good start in a group that also includes Atletico Madrid and APOEL Nicosia. Chelsea will be without the suspended Didier Drogba and Jose Bosingwa, who were punished for their furious reactions to Chelsea's exit last season. Branislav Ivanovic could switch to right-back to cover for Bosingwa, with Ricardo Carvalho set to come into central defence alongside John Terry. Replacing Drogba might be more tricky as the Ivorian striker has been in superb form so far this season, but Nicolas Anelka may start as a lone front man. Deco (calf), Alex (groin) and Paulo Ferreira (knee) are still injured, while midfielders Joe Cole and Yuri Zhirkov have knee problems. Porto will be confident of advancing from the group phase yet again after reaching the quarter-finals last season, where they were edged out 3-2 on aggregate by Manchester United. They are unbeaten in their first four domestic matches of the season and have no major injury problems after welcoming back Cristian Rodriguez. Lisandro Lopez and Lucho Gonzalez left the Portuguese club over the summer but manager Jesualdo Ferreira is not too worried about the departures. "Losing players is a cycle every team goes through," he explained. "Last year was different but for the last two years we have been working very hard to get where we want to be. "We have spent the last two months preparing and incorporating new players to be ready for this game. This team is ready and I'm sure we can achieve different things."

Source: SKY_Sports