The Londoners are also way off the pace in the Premier League and Mourinho has criticised his side at times during a hard start to the season.
Advertisement
A Chelsea team running at half-speed would not concede in such a manner and the goal exemplified the situation that Mourinho’s men are now in.
Chelsea continued their woeful form with a 2-1 defeat to FC Porto on Tuesday night, as the Blues’ performances continue to shock supporters.
Porto were stunned, but Chelsea were unable to build on that moment of brilliance by the Brazilian as the home side regained the lead just seven minutes after the restart, their captain Maicon stooping to head a Ruben Neves corner low past Begovic at his near post.
Instead the manager praised his side’s defensive display, despite Porto dominating for long periods and threatening to score many more than their two goals, while acknowledging two errors at corners.
Mourinho insisted it was purely a selection decision not to bring Remy and Falcao to Portugal – and one he did not regret with hindsight.
Maicon got what proved to be the winning goal for Porto at the Estadio do Dragao after a superb Willian free-kick had cancelled out Andre Andre’s opener in a tremendous Group G encounter as Mourinho returned to face his former club.
And as was painfully evident on Tuesday night, as well as at Newcastle, they are significantly weaker at defending set pieces when he is absent.
Rodgers cited Porto’s preparations for their match against Chelsea as an example of how English football could help its representatives in Europe.
But they saw efforts either hit the woodwork or deflected wide, while Marcano appeared to handle the ball in the area.
“It is something we have to cope with and we respect that challenge but it means you really have to monitor and get the best out of the players you have available”.
“You only have to look at Chelsea’s history to see how quickly they change managers when they’re not happy with something… so watch this space”. Apart from that I thought we had balance, defensively we had no problems and the defenders played well.
“They [European clubs] have a domestic competition less to cope with as well; we have two domestic cup competitions in this country where the others have one“.
Advertisement
Porto coach Julen Lopetegui: “The players attitude was incredible, spectacular”. “Can they be much worse with Terry at the back?” Chelsea did not deserve anything from this game and a point would have been smoke and mirrors in front of a auto crash. “We did not lose the game because of that mistake that’s a farce”, he added.
