Chelsea were “poor” and deserved to lose to Porto in the Champions League on Tuesday night, according to Sky Sports pundit Phil Thompson.
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Ferdinand pointed to the fact, “John Terry has been an integral part of this Chelsea side for over 12 years”.
Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, who is one of the pundits for BT Sport, opined that the current Chelsea players are suffering mentally due to a lack of leadership and composure.
And while the visitors were denied a clear-cut penalty in the final minute of the game, Thompson thinks that would only have “papered over the cracks” as far as Jose Mourinho’s side are concerned.
“I didn’t see that against Porto”.
“I would love to play against Real Madrid in the round of 16”, he continued. Should Arsenal fail to win one of the games, they will face elimination at the group stage for the first time since 1998.
Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger found themselves in the spotlight after another miserable night for English clubs in the Champions League.
Barcelona’s dramatic comeback was achieved without Lionel Messi, who is set to miss two months with a torn knee ligament, and the team’s injury worries grew when Andres Iniesta was forced off in the second half with an apparent thigh injury.
“If you ask me to put my life on a game and I had to pick a team for England or Chelsea in a one-off match, John would captain it”. “The second goal, for us it is a ridiculous mistake”, Mourinho said. “Sometimes you make that kind of ridiculous mistake and you are not punished, we were punished”, he said.
“But at the moment, there are many players who are trying to walk on egg shells at the moment and that is really doing the team no good.”
“In situations like this when the ship needs steering a little bit on the pitch when the manager can’t be the man on the pitch I think he is someone this team has always looked to”.
He added: “Seeing Hazard and Terry on the bench is destabilising for this squad”.
“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”.
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Overall, though, Porto were deserving winners as they joined Dynamo Kiev at the top of the group with four points from two games.
