A weary Atletico Madrid were overwhelmed by Tuchel’s perseverant Chelsea over two legs, keeping clean sheets in both. Tuchel made history with his 13th unbeaten game and will look forward to facing Portuguese giants Porto in the quarter-finals.
Porto shrugged off an unimpressive Juventus side and advanced through to the quarters with on away goals, after having played with a man less for over an hour in Turin in the 2nd leg.
Speaking to Chelsea TV after the draw, Tuchel made his thoughts known on facing Porto:
“First of all, I’m happy we play an international game and not against an English team. Champions League is about that. I have always preferred playing against teams from other countries.
Then we have the second leg at home which feels good, to start with an away game and then maybe have a slight advantage of finishing at home.”
Tuchel is aware that his team will enter the tie as favorites to go through, but has himself deep-rooted to not be over-confident.
He continued:
“Clearly many people will maybe now make us the favorites against Porto. That will not help us. You can ask in Turin what the opinion about this is, and if it helps to be favorites.
“We are self-confident – strongly connected with our performances. We face a strong one, but now we are in the quarter-final and the only thing we focus on is to reach the semi-final.”
The Blues dodged tougher opponents as Real Madrid, who are likely semi-final adversaries, Manchester City, and Bayern Munich. What cooks up over the two legs will no doubt be a mouthwatering clash between two of Europe’s most underrated teams.
