Chelsea drew 0-0 with Olympiakos two weeks ago, but with home advantage now the Blues will expect to progress into the last eight. Click here for the latest odds!

Everton have backed Tim Cahill following the midfielder’s controversial goal celebration against Portsmouth on Sunday.

Having scored the second goal in Everton’s 3-1 win, Cahill crossed his wrists as if handcuffed. He later admitted that the gesture was intended as a show of support for his brother, Sean, who received a six-year jail sentence in January for grievous bodily harm.

“Basically, it’s for my older brother,” said Cahill. “Everyone knows my situation and I am just proud that he is happy and I am happy and I’m thinking of him always. My family means a lot to me and so does this football club. It’s been a bit emotional but it’s good.”

Everton have refused to criticise Cahill for his actions.

“Goal celebrations are a personal matter and up to the player to decide,” said a club spokesman. “No one dictates what the player can do as long as he stays within the laws of the game, as long as it doesn’t result in a caution. It clearly was a very personal thing for Tim Cahill. Anyone who saw the pictures will see he was emotional and it meant a lot to him.

“Tim is a highly intelligent young man and makes his own decisions and saw fit to send a message to his brother, if that’s what he was doing. He is a very articulate young man and will have weighed up the pros and cons and decided to do it because it was a personal and emotional matter. I am sure Tim was fully aware that some people would not be in favour of what he did before he did it.”

Cahill’s brother was sentenced to jail in January following what police described as a “brutal and terrifying” attack on a man outside a taxi office in Bromley, Kent on 11 July 2004.

Chelsea drew 0-0 with Olympiakos two weeks ago, but with home advantage now the Blues will expect to progress into the last eight. Click here for the latest odds!