Collective spirit inspires Chelsea
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Article summary
José Mourinho believes Chelsea FC's team-work was the key to beating his former side FC Porto.
Article body
Under the tutelage of FC Porto's former coach, José Mourinho, Chelsea FC moved a step closer to the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League with a deserved victory over last season's winners. Much of Chelsea's inspiration came from the energy of Frank Lampard, who created the decisive third goal with a free-kick that John Terry headed past Vítor Baía. Two minutes earlier Benni McCarthy's strike had halved Chelsea's two-goal advantage, Porto's task having been made difficult after they conceded goals at the beginning of each half to Aleksei Smertin and Didier Drogba. The result leaves Porto with just one point from their opening two matches and facing the possibility of early elimination. For Mourinho the portents are far more promising.
José Mourinho, Chelsea manager
From a sporting point of view it is great we have six points. We beat the European champions and we won at home for the first time in the Champions League for four matches, so we broke down some walls tonight. It was quite far from my ideal football but from a defensive point of view we are really strong. I would have liked us to have retained more possession but the mentality of my team is absolutely fantastic and every moment of the game we played as a team. My big players perform as a unit and that is the reason why we are hard to beat.
Víctor Fernández, Porto coach
I did not think that the 3-1 scoreline reflected what happened. We were caught on the counterattack and it became very difficult for us after the third goal was scored. We defended well but our main problem was dealing with free-kicks. Lampard is a great crosser and we were playing against some of the best headers of the ball in Europe, such as Didier Drogba, John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho. Our position in the group is now more complicated because we lost but it is only the second match and there is a long way to go. There are no invincible teams and there are two months until the next match with Chelsea by which time we will have our injured players back and we should be stronger.
