Ancelotti ready for 'long race' to final

Chelsea FC manager Carlo Ancelotti has his eyes on the Wembley final after defeating FC Spartak Moskva 4-1 to progress from UEFA Champions League Group F. Valeri Karpin said Spartak's heads dropped when Nicolas Anelka opened the scoring on 49 minutes.

Carlo Ancelotti, Chelsea manager
In the last 15 minutes of the first half we lost control of the game but the second half was very good. We played well and now we've qualified we have to work again to finish in first place. We are playing consistently and, as a result, we have more confidence compared to last season. We've changed a lot of things in our play and this year it's better. Anelka was the key to opening up the game. He scored a fantastic goal.

It's a long race getting to the final. When you reach the first aim, which is to win the group, the next aim is to reach the final, and then to win that. I don't know if we can do this, but we have a chance. We have the motivation to do this, but sometimes you have to be lucky as well. We are working to the final at Wembley.

Valeri Karpin, Spartak coach
We played good football in the first half. The match was close until the first goal, then we let our heads drop. Nothing has changed in terms of our chances of getting out of the group. If we win our last two games, we will qualify. When you're losing 4-1, there's not much joy in having scored at Stamford Bridge. It would only have been significant if the score had been 0-0 at the time.

I believe our mistakes were down to pressure. Chelsea players are just stronger individually, you can't forget that. We were not that nervous, like in the first match, and that's good. Chelsea were simply better tonight. I took a risk by starting with Alex – he was fit, but his form is far from ideal.