Top of the crop

Armful: can Drogba repeat his Atletico performance in Portugal?

Porto are always willing to have a bit of a go and with a home crowd behind them they will be determined to get a huge Premier League scalp.

Phil Thompson
Quotes of the week

LIVE ON SKY SPORTS
Porto v Chelsea
7.30pm, Wed, Sky Sports 2 & HD1

Related links

Teams

• Chelsea

Also see

• Chelsea welcome back trio

It's imperative to top your group at this stage of the Champions League so I don't expect either Porto or Chelsea to give an inch on Wednesday - even if they have both already qualified.

Both will want to go into the last 16 as Group D winners so they play the second leg of their last-16 clash at home; they are both experienced campaigners in Europe and know that will give them a distinct advantage going forward.

People might try to claim that you don't get any benefits from finishing first but, I'm sorry, you do; if you get beat 2-0 away from home then you've still got a good chance of turning it around.

I always remember Jose Mourinho saying when he was in charge at Chelsea that it didn't really matter - but I think he only said that when he knew his side was going to finish second anyway.

You ask any of the players or any of the staff off the record and they will all say they would like the second leg to be away from home.

Continuity

Chelsea certainly won't want to go into Sunday's game against Arsenal with both strikers out so I imagine Carlo Ancelotti will go into this one with just a single forward and that man will be Didier Drogba.

He came back from European suspension like a man possessed against Atletico Madrid and should be fresh after missing Saturday's 4-0 victory over Wolves. He was on a one-man mission that night in Madrid. He was absolutely fantastic.

With it being away from home, I'd expect Carlo Ancelotti to go with a 4-3-3 formation rather than a 4-4-2 with the diamond in midfield.

It's a difficult one to call with such a big Premier League game on the horizon and although Ancelotti will tinker with his side I can't see him making big changes.

Continuity is key when it comes to setting up and organizing your defence and for that reason I think he will stick with Petr Cech in goal instead of allowing Henrique Hilario a crack against his former club.

If Chelsea had been playing either Atletico or Apoel Nicosia then Hilario would probably have come in but with it being Porto at the Estadio do Drago, the Czech should play.

Talent

As the match is so touch and go I think Gael Kakuta, who we saw in a cameo role on Saturday, will start on the bench. If Chelsea go 2-0 up then I'm sure he'll get another game but it's quite difficult to bring him in to start this game.

Experience counts for a lot in this scenario but there's no denying Kakuta seems to be a talent; at present he's best used when the going is good.

It's interesting to see how Chelsea get on in the absence of Frank Lampard. Liverpool are not the seam team when Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres are missing, Manchester United have certainly not been the same without Cristiano Ronaldo and Arsenal sorely missed Robin van Persie on Saturday.

When you are one of the top teams you need goals from all positions and that's exactly what Lampard gives Chelsea from midfield.

Porto are not the most effective team around at the moment but you always know what you are going to get with them.

They are always willing to have a bit of a go and with a home crowd behind them they will be determined to get a huge Premier League scalp. They won't be resting players or looking for an easy way out.

They made Chelsea fight hard for their 1-0 win earlier in the competition; I thought they played extremely well for the first 20 minutes of that game but overall didn't have the necessary quality to put a dent in Chelsea's aspirations.

THOMMO'S CALL: I'm expecting this to be a low-scoring draw; I think Chelsea will have enough to get something out of the game and that will be enough for them to top the pile.