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CHELSEA FC: JOSE: PORTO DESERVE RESPECT

/noticias.info/ There has been reaction from both management and playing staff to the news Chelsea will play Porto in a Champions League knockout tie.

On hearing the draw that will take his Chelsea side back to the club he made European Champions in 2004, Mourinho said:

'A draw is a draw and especially in the last 16 of the Champions League you know a good team is coming your way.

'Porto is a team with tradition in European football and is a team with ambition so they deserve respect from us and they will have it.

'Do we want to go to the quarter-final?' he asked. 'Of course.

'Are we confident? 100 per cent.

'But I repeat only a good Chelsea playing at a high level will do it.

'It is two months to the first leg so it is time to forget the Champions League and concentrate on domestic competitions.'

Having tried a succession of foreign coaches to take Mourinho's place since his departure, Porto are back in Portuguese hands with Jesualdo Ferreira appointed in August.

The experienced coach is a former assistant manager of the Portuguese national side and has also been in charge of the Under 21s.

Porto currently stand five points clear at the top of their domestic league.

Arjen Robben believes the draw is tough, but it could have been tougher.


'The likes of Inter and Real Madrid were in that group, those were the teams - not to avoid because if you are going to win the Champions League you have to beat any team - but those were the two teams that were the toughest,' he claims.

'Still it is not an easy draw, but it is a nice draw for the Portuguese - the manager, his staff and some of the players.'

The game is an opportunity for Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira to play against the club with whom they too won the Champions League.

It won't be the first time - Chelsea having played Porto in the group stage of the 2004/5 season, winning 3-1 at the Bridge but losing 2-1 on the banks of the Douro.

Both teams qualified for the next stage. This time one goes out.

'As a team, we have to look at it as a normal game,' reckons Robben.

'It has a special feeling for the manager and Ricardo and Paulo and of course it may give them that extra bit of pleasure if we beat Porto.

'But generally I think we just have to look at it as a normal game.

'They are a good side but we are quite happy with it. If you want to win the Champions League, you have to beat teams like Porto.' notas_de_prensa_archivo