Champions League day 6: Chelsea FC 2-0 FC Porto
Chelsea, Porto and Kiev were in the mix for the first two places of the group with each controlling their own destiny. Chelsea had to win to secure first place and Kiev had to win to qualify hoping Chelsea and Porto would not draw {every team with 11 points in each situation}. Chelsea played the game they had to and delivered a solid performance to qualify to the next round where they could face again PSG like they did the past two years (Round of 16 in 2014-15 and Quarterfinals in 2013-14).
Coach Jose Mourinho expresses his joy and achievement:
‘The thing that I’m most happy with, apart from the result, is the fact we needed a point to qualify and the players accepted the challenge of playing to win. That’s not easy when the moment is bad, results are negative and pressure is high. They were brave to accept that challenge. Apart from that I felt the first goal was fundamental. When we scored they were in a difficult position because they needed to win, a point wasn’t enough for them. We knew we could conceded a goal and still qualify.
‘What gives me confidence is the fact that we have been playing okay for the last couple of months, the results haven’t been as good as the work we do every day and the way the players are playing. We could have had different results against Stoke, Tottenham, Bournemouth.
‘The piece of luck we had with the first goal tonight we’ve never had in the Premier League. It was a great decision by the official on the goal-line and we never get that in the Premier League, despite the fact it’s goal-line technology.
‘When the game started both teams were under pressure, when we scored the first goal the picture was different. We were more calm, more relaxed, the players could be in control of the game and the situation for Porto was more difficult.’
‘A team which is struggling as we are is obviously not a candidate to win the Champions League because you have the best teams in Europe, but when we won it with Porto in 2004 we were not candidates. When we won it with Inter in 2010 we were not candidates. When we were candidates with Real Madrid we lost two semi-finals, and we lost two semi-finals with Chelsea as well, so let’s see, you never know.’
