Porto 1 Chelsea 1: Injury for Terry mars good night for Chelsea

Jose Mourinho predicted a draw. Jose Mourinho got a draw. What he certainly did not want was another injury to John Terry, but the Chelsea captain left the field inside the first 10 minutes in clear distress and, at the final whistle, limped away on crutches.

Later his foot was heavily strapped, with suggestions it may even be in a cast. Of course he will miss Sunday's League Cup final - the real fear is that he could be out for as much as six weeks of an injury-plagued season.

This time it was an ankle injury, an aggravation of the ligament damage suffered the day before the tie, raising questions as to why he was risked last night.

The fear had been that he had hurt the calf which was damaged as a complication of his recovery from back surgery. Either way, it is a major concern for a club back down to one fit central defender, in Ricardo Carvalho, and for England.

"From that point [the injury] everything changed," Mourinho said. "We are not in an easy situation. When will John be back? I don't know. But I'm so cool about it because every day I lose a player. It's absolutely unbelievable."

Chelsea lost another, Arjen Robben, who had been a decisive replacement for Terry but failed to emerge for the second-half because of a far less serious "muscle" injury. Mourinho's team also, irritatingly, collected four cautions.

That is where the problems end. What is far less of an issue, having at one time been the biggest problem of all, is the form of Andrei Shevchenko. The 30-year-old striker scored Chelsea's precious goal, the 11th and most important of his turbulent career at the club and probably his best. Mourinho said: "Shev-chenko was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Fantastic. His effort to be a team player is amazing, his improvement is amazing. Everyone in the team is delighted."

The goal took Shev-chenko above Eusebio and on to 58 goals in 104 European appearances, second to Gerd Müller, with 62 goals, as the top scorer in European competition. It was a significant achievement. It also makes Chelsea clear favourites to progress to the quarter-finals of the European Cup at the expense of the club with whom Mourinho won the trophy three years ago.

This was a controlled performance by Mourinho's team, the control coming from the manager's astuteness, tactical acumen and ability to think on his feet. He was bold, too. When Terry pulled up with no one around him and limped to the side of the pitch, Mourinho's instinct was to bring on John Obi Mikel and shore up the defence. But then Porto scored. A headed clearance by Claude Makelele from Helder Postiga's cut-back only reached the edge of the area, where it was met on the volley by Raul Meireles. His shot deflected off Fucile and whistled beyond Petr Cech.

Mourinho reacted by throwing on Robben and changing formation. Immediately the Dutch winger's clever ball inside the Porto defence was finished, left-foot across the goalkeeper Helton, by Shevchenko. A touch of class.

Back came Porto. The precocious Ricardo Quaresma jinked towards goal and was stopped but the ball broke to Lisandro Lopez whose shot was brilliantly pushed away by Cech. At the other end, Didier Drogba should have done better than head over when reaching Frank Lampard's floated free-kick.

Despite some cynical behaviour, Quaresma's influence grew. From an angle the winger, who is coveted by Mourinho, struck Lopez's pass wonderfully with the outside of his right foot to drift the ball away from Cech - only for the ball to come back off the bar. Cech also did well to hold on to Quaresma's free-kick.

Mourinho had seen enough. It was time to kill off the threat. Mikel came on and doubled up, with the struggling right-back Lassana Diarra, on Quaresma. It worked. Porto became frustrated and, after drawing the sting in a sterile second-half, Chelsea hit back, Drogba hitting a left-foot shot against the outside of the post.

There was a late scare. Lopez latched on to a through ball ahead of Cech, but with the goalkeeper caught out the Porto player could not put a shot on target.

"One-one is clearly a negative result for Porto," said their coach, Jesualdo Ferreira. But, even if it is hugely overshadowed by Terry's injury, it was an impressively positive one for a resilient Chelsea.

Porto (4-3-3): Helton; Bosingwa, Pepe, Bruno Alves, Fucile (Moraes, 65); Lucho, Assuncao, Meireles (M Cech, 58); Lisandro Lopez, Postiga (Adriano, 77), Quaresma. Substitutes not used: Vitor Baia (gk), Ricardo Costa, Alan, Joao Paulo.

Chelsea (4-4-2): P Cech; Diarra, Carvalho, Terry (Robben, 13; Mikel, h-t), Bridge; Essien, Makelele, Ballack, Lampard; Shevchenko (Kalou, 88), Drogba. Substitutes not used: Cudicini (gk), Geremi, Ferreira, Wright-Phillips.

Referee: M Busacca (Switzerland).

* Ashley Cole, the Chelsea full-back who has been out of action since the end of January with knee ligament damage, played 60 minutes of a 1-0 victory against Reading's reserves last night.