CHELSEA’S Champions League last-eight clash with Porto has been moved to a neutral stadium.
The European giants will now play both legs at Sevilla’s Estadio Sanchez-Pizjuan.
The encounter will now take place in Spain after Portugal banned flights arriving from the UK, according to sports journalist Adriano Del Monte.
Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea face Porto in their first-leg encounter on April 7 before their fate will be sealed on April 13 in the reverse fixture.
Chelsea will still nominally have ‘home’ advantage in the second leg, where extra-time will be possible but the away goals rules would favour the Portuguese side.
It is currently expected that the other two ties involving Prem clubs, with Liverpool drawn against Real Madrid and Manchester City facing Borussia Dortmund, will be given the green light to take place in the clubs’ home stadia.
Portugal was on the UK’s red list of banned countries to visit but that was removed on March 19.
However, the Daily Mail write how Tuchel and his players would have required to self-isolate for 10 days on their return from Portugal.
The news could give Chelsea confidence heading into the first leg after Olivier Giroud scored all four in a 4-0 thrashing away at Sevilla in December.
Chelsea were already forced to play their first-leg Round of 16 win over Atletico Madrid in a neutral stadium in Romania.
They then hosted Diego Simeone’s high-flyers at Stamford Bridge in the second-leg.
Porto and Chelsea are familiar rivals in European football with the Blues winning five of their last eight meetings.
This is also Chelsea’s first appearance in the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time since 2014.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
