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Heads up at Chelsea after Shakhtar classic

"Hopefully I'll score with my leg soon," joked Chelsea FC's Victor Moses after his header sunk FC Shakhtar Donetsk, for whom it had been "a privilege to play" in such a match.

Heads up at Chelsea after Shakhtar classic
Heads up at Chelsea after Shakhtar classic ©UEFA.com

Chelsea FC and FC Shakhtar Donetsk's players agreed they had been involved in an unforgettable game after the home team's thrilling 3-2 Group E victory at Stamford Bridge. The visitors described Chelsea's first two goals as "stupid" and "ridiculous" while Fernando Torres cut through the euphoria to warn the holders that they must improve.

Victor Moses, Chelsea forward
I was delighted to get that goal. Hopefully I'll start scoring with my leg soon [his three Chelsea goals have come from headers]. It was a great corner from Juan Mata and I was in the right place at the right time. Shakhtar are one of the best teams in Europe. They have a lot of Brazilian players and their quality is obvious. But we competed with them well and it was a great game.

Fernando Torres, Chelsea forward
Our first two goals came from our pressing and their mistakes. This is not the way we normally score. We normally create chances when we have the ball but it didn't happen tonight. We were worried about that at half-time and then we conceded an early goal again in the second half. This kind of situation cannot happen again, because in the Champions League that can mean you go out of the competition.

Shakhtar showed they have a great mentality in coming back twice to equalise. You can tell how good they are because they have not lost many games over the last two years. We were lucky to score in the last minute and we are happy with the result but we must do much better.

Gary Cahill, Chelsea defender
We played against some great quality tonight. Shakhtar were tremendous, especially offensively. They get players forward and at times seemed to have five players up front but in the end it was a massive result for us. We knew how important the three points would be. That was stressed to us before the start and luckily Victor [Moses] came up with another important goal.

Shakhtar have a lot of pace in the team, the full-backs are great and Willian had a big impact tonight and also in the first leg. It was a tough test but like we've shown a few times this season we keep pushing and pushing and luckily we got our rewards in the end. It was a fantastic game and great entertainment.

Darijo Srna, Shakhtar full-back
It is complicated now because Chelsea have seven points, the same as us. The situation is not so good – if we had drawn it would have been much better for us. We played well and had lots of chances to score but the luck was not with us today. We had more chances than they did but the first two goals we conceded were stupid goals from our point of view, but that's football. Then the winner comes from Moses who is not the biggest guy on the pitch. I can't explain it. I don't know who was meant to pick him up but it doesn't matter any more. We lost and now need another victory to be sure of going through to the next round. But it was a fantastic game and a privilege to play a part in it.

Olexandr Kucher, Shakhtar defender
We controlled the ball well, had a lot of possession and dictated the tempo. Even after their two ridiculous goals we were able to fight back and then played confidently, so this result was hardly fair. Were the missed chances to blame for our defeat? It's hard to say that because we are all responsible. We win together and lose together. We wanted to win today and came to win. We were not thinking of a draw. Victory would have given us a safe passage out of the group but in the end we missed out. But this was not a defeat we deserved. Everyone saw the match – we should not have lost. If we had seized our chances it could have been us winning 3-2, but it was not to be.

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