Styles make fights. That truism applies to football too. When Chelsea were drawn with Porto in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals, everything suggested this would be akin to the real-world sporting version of a mirror match on Street Fighter II.

Porto manager Sergio Conceicao and Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel have wildly different budgets to work with, however, they do have the same ethos. Porto and this new look Chelsea are well-drilled side that start with a rigid defense and build forward from there.

It shouldn't be much of a surprise then that the first half-hour of this game played out like a sparring contest. Chelsea started off taking control of possession, bouncing the ball across their vast, double-layered 3-4-2-1 midfield until a gap appeared that Ben Chilwell or Reece James could dart into, then they would try and involve danger men Mason Mount and Timo Werner.

They didn't try to force anything; the back line of Porto's 4-5-1 has gained a reputation of being a brick wall and Tuchel is smart enough to have told his men they have 180 minutes to chip through it, so they don't need to bang their heads against of it from the opening whistle.

Chelsea were willing to play backward and calmly try again. In these opening stages, this was the main difference between themselves and Porto. Heartened by Chelsea's 5-2 loss to West Brom (an awful team, 19th of 20 in the Premier League), Porto overloaded the flanks, alternating left and right depending on how Chelsea defended, and then looked for striker Moussa Marega, out front on his lonesome due to Mehdi Taremi's suspension.

It was clear he wasn't used to working on his own as Jesus Corona and Marko Grujic were involved in the lion's share of shots on target.

The deadlock was broken in the 32nd minute. Probing play from Chelsea lead to Jorginho passing the ball in to Mount. He was standing just onside in front of Chancel Mbemba and swiveled smoothly to take the ball into the box, unguarded, and he sent it to the far side of goalkeeper Agustin Marchesin.

Just as chess grandmasters keep their cool when their rivals take a piece – perhaps also aided by the silence of the neutral Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan ground the match was being played in – the teams lined up, and the technical display continued. It's crazy to see Pepe, a player known for his hot-headedness as much as his craftiness, leading such a sensible squad.

Admittedly, deep down, even while enjoying such high-quality football, it's impossible not to remember the aforementioned budgetary differences. Chelsea spent hundreds of millions of pounds on Werner and Kai Havertz, with the exception of a combined 30+ goals per season. Instead, they were totally bossed by Porto and Havertz, the furthest forward player, was rendered invisible.

It wasn't until the 86th minute that Chelsea secured the tie. Kovacic went deep and Corona sloppily intercepted. The ball bound off his boot and Chilwell swooped it up and sprinted into the box; Marchesin ran out to block him but Chilwell went around and knocked it into an open net.

At 2-0 with less than five minutes remaining, the game was lost for Porto, yet their style of play was so disciplined that the second leg still promises to be thrilling.