Porto vs Chelsea: Player Ratings

A much awaited clash, as Jose Mourinho was up against his old team, though the final results were not quite he would have been hoping for. The match was little scrappy as both the team made a plenty of errors and gave away possession very easily, failing to keep the ball and to distribute it with authority.  Chelsea clearly lacked leadership and looked out of sort, while defending set pieces as both the goals conceded were from corners, something Chelsea are good at defending. Of the two teams Porto showed more hunger and desire to register a win as they kept creating chances on the counters by exploiting the lack of pace in Chelsea’s defense.

Here’s the Player Ratings:

Ivanovic – 5.0

Chelsea captain for the night has reached a stage where the question arises how many more matches you need to perform poorly to be dropped from Mourinho’s eleven. His performance today was like a sinking ship which kept going downwards.

Cahill – 5.5

Gary Cahill in the absence of Terry looked very vulnerable and lost for the most part of the game, as the lack of understanding between him and Zouma was clearing visible.

Zouma – 6.0

Zouma with his strength and pace is vital for Chelsea but his lack of ability to read the game quickly and react to it- which he probably will gain through experience – was the problem tonight.

Azpilicueta – 6.0

One of the consistent performers for Chelsea, Azpilicueta suffered a drop in performance in tonight’s game. Going forward he didn’t contribute anything, defensively the solidity he shows generally was lacking.

John-Obi-Mikel – 5.5

Mikel had a long night against Porto, filling in for Matic, as he couldn’t provide the protection to the back four and going forward he lost possession very cheaply.

Fabregas – 6.0

Fabregas who has the responsibility of creating the play, failed again in distributing ball quickly and controlling the tempo. His defensive ability is still to be condemned, while his set pieces were very average too.

Willian – 6.5

Third goal from the set piece for Willian this season, scored the only goal for Chelsea tonight. For the most part of the match he played on the left and had his moment there but gave away ball in a very naive manner, failing to find his teammates on number of occasions.

Ramirez -6.0

The Brazilian didn’t have much to show as had a pretty average outing on the field, but had a one or two high moments while running at opposition with his blistering pace.

Pedro – 5.5

In the absence of Hazard, limelight was on Pedro to take the responsibility to see through this one but he failed to make any sort of impact on the game, though he had a few opportunities in the 1 half, which he squandered.

Costa – 6.0

Costa didn’t get enough crosses in the box to exploit any kind of opportunity, though he came close to scoring from outside the box hitting crossbar. He did well to hold the ball or to flick it off to his teammates, but apart from this he didn’t had much to do.

Substitution

Hazard – 6.0

The Belgian came on for Mikel for the last 20 minutes and almost won a penalty (if he went to ground) for the Blues. His introduction made Chelsea look marginally more threatening but he couldn’t pull anything out of his box to save the day.

Kennedy – 6.0

Kennedy for Pedro didn’t had enough time to really affect the game in any sense, he looked sharp and made good runs but nothing more.

Matic – 5.5

Matic who was on substation bench, gave no reason to be placed back in team for the next match as he replaced Ramirez and failed to cope with Abubakar’s strength and pace as he skipped past him easily.