Special omens as Chelsea face Porto

Fate has a way of setting up enticing Champions League encounters and Chelsea’s showdown against Porto tomorrow is up there with the best, writes David Shonfield.

It’s a knockout match. Porto have to go for the win, because Dynamo Kiev will surely defeat Maccabi Tel Aviv, even if Uefa has banned their spectators for racism. Chelsea are on a tightrope — one slip could put them out.

Their beleaguered manager faces the club where he made his name, in a match that could be make or break. Should he survive, his following match is against league leaders Leicester City, managed by his predecessor in 2004, Claudio Ranieri, so often the nearly man and the target of Mourinho’s jibes in Italy and England.