Porto out to check Chelsea progress

In each of the past two seasons FC Barcelona have stood in the way of José Mourinho at this stage of the UEFA Champions League and this time the Chelsea FC manager comes face to face with another of his former employers as the English champions take on their Portuguese counterparts FC Porto in the first knockout round.

• It is the second time Mourinho has come up against the team he guided to an unexpected success in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League. The teams met in the group stage the following season, the Portuguese's first at Stamford Bridge, and in each case the home team prevailed.

• Mourinho's current club won the first game 3-1 with goals from Aleksei Smertin, Didier Drogba and John Terry, Benni McCarthy getting Porto's reply. However, the two-time European champions got their revenge at the Estádio do Dragão two months later, McCarthy scoring again with his winner arriving after Diego had cancelled out Damien Duff's opener for the visitors.

• Mourinho aside, there are many ties between the sides with his compatriots Hilário, Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira all returning to their former club. The latter two were both in the Porto team that won the 2004 showpiece.

• Chelsea had never been drawn against Portuguese opposition in European competition before those 2004/05 games but their opponents - who are chasing a place in the last eight for the first time since they lifted the trophy three years ago - are more familiar with English sides. Jesualdo Ferreira's team were paired with Arsenal FC in this season's group stage and qualified from Group G as runners-up behind the London team, securing their place on Matchday 6 with a 0-0 draw at home to Arsène Wenger's men which left them level with their visitors on eleven points.

• It was Porto's second goalless draw in their three home games; the other match, against Hamburger SV, ended 4-1 in their favour. Lisandro López struck twice in that fixture and with Lucho González is the club's joint top scorer in the competition this season on three goals.

• The Arsenal result means Porto remain unbeaten in their eight home games against English visitors, which have yielded four wins and four goalless draws. Before the win against Chelsea they had seen off the challenge of Manchester United FC in the 2003/04 first knockout round first leg by the same scoreline.

• Chelsea won Group A with 13 points gained from four wins and a draw in their six fixtures thanks in no small part to five goals from Didier Drogba, making him the competition's joint leading scorer this season. The English champions dropped points in both their last two away games, drawing 2-2 in Barcelona and losing 1-0 against Werder Bremen.

• Chelsea bowed out of last season's competition at this stage, losing 2-1 at home to Barcelona with a 1-1 draw in Spain insufficient to avoid elimination. It was the first time they had failed to reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals in their fourth attempt at winning Europe's premier club prize.

• The return game will be at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday 6 March.