Jose Mourinho Takes Chelsea’s Stars Off the Field – No Untouchables
Top professional players – and even EPL team captains – can be placed on the bench by their soccer coach — and, of course even those pros are unhappy! Here is the latest news from across the Atlantic on what is happening in England at Chelsea FC.
EPL Soccer News: Jose Mourinho leaves John Terry and Eden Hazard both out of Chelsea’s team to play for Champions League clash in Porto, Portugal.
Mourinho proved there are no untouchables in his squad by dropping Hazard to the substitutes bench for Tuesday night’s Champions League Group G clash at his former club Porto.
Captain Terry remained on the bench, with last season’s player of the year Hazard and Nemanja Matic joining him, while Diego Costa was chosen up front after serving two games of a three-match domestic ban.
Former Porto boss Mourinho questioned the attitude of his players ahead of the trip to the Estadio do Dragao and in the wake of Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Newcastle, when he wanted to substitute six players at half-time.
Oscar, who has carried a niggling knee injury of late, was absent altogether, with John Obi Mikel, Willian and Ramires joining Costa in coming into the side.
Want a recap of the Chelsea Youth Soccer program?
UEFA Youth League Report: Porto 3 Chelsea 3
Ten-man Chelsea held on to earn a valuable point at Porto in this afternoon’s UEFA Youth League game, but Adi Viveash’s side should have taken all three after leading 3-0.
Goals from Kasey Palmer, Josimar Quintero and Kyle Scott inside the opening half-hour had seen us on course for a second successive win in this season’s competition, but the home side scored either side of the break to bring themselves back into the contest.
With 19 minutes remaining Palmer was dismissed for a second yellow card, and when Porto equalised through Ruben Macedo four minutes later, it became clear that a point would be a good result, and some resolute Chelsea defending late on ensured that’s how it stayed.
Viveash made two changes to the side which opened our campaign with a 3-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv a fortnight ago, Ali Suljic coming in for Trevoh Chalobah at the back and Quintero replacing Miro Muheim wide on the right of the supporting attacking trio in behind Tammy Abraham. Palmer, who scored a brace against the Israeli side, was deployed in the ‘number 10’ role, with Jay Dasilva in a more advanced position on the left. Ola Aina started at right-back while Jake Clarke-Salter captained the team.
