Champions League: How Chelsea could line up against Porto

9:39am on Monday 12th April 2021
By Martin Macdonald

Chelsea will have Thiago Silva available for selection again for this week's Champions League quarter-final second leg clash with Porto.

A couple of weeks ago the former Paris Saint-Germain defender was sent off against West Brom as the Blues were destroyed 5-2 at home to West Brom. Following that, he served his suspension against Crystal Palace.

Sandwiched in between those two Premier League games was the first leg against Porto in which he didn't feature, but with Thomas Tuchel's men leading 2-0 heading into the second leg, it is a good opportunity to introduce Silva back into the starting XI.

Tuchel is lucky enough to have a fully fit squad at his disposal, but knowing his tendency to chop and change things in his tenure so far, that could present him with a few headaches, albeit welcomed ones.

Edouard Mendy will start in goal potentially behind a back three off Cesar Azpilicueta, Silva, and Antonio Rudiger, with Kurt Zouma dropping out from the weekend.

N'Golo Kante is pushing for a start, and could feature in midfield in place of Mateo Kovacic.

There could be a couple of switches in the wing-back spots with Reece James and Marcos Alonso coming back into the starting XI in place of Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ben Chilwell.

Mason Mount, Kai Havertz, and Christian Pulisic were all excellent in the weekend win against Crystal Palace, so could we finally see an unchanged front three from Tuchel game to game?

Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech, Olivier Giroud and Tammy Abraham will, of course, all be wanting a start too.