Show of spirit delights Deschamps

By Matt Spiro in Monaco

AS Monaco FC coach Didier Deschamps hailed the "exceptional character and quality" of his side after they recovered from the sending off of Akis Zikos to seal a 3-1 win against Chelsea FC with two late goals in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final.

Game raised
Chelsea seemed to be in control when Zikos received his marching orders in the 53rd minute after Hernán Crespo had cancelled out Dado Pršo's opening strike. But the ten men of Monaco raised their game and will now be favourites to go through at Stamford Bridge in a fortnight.

'Absolutely exceptional'
A delighted Deschamps said: "Going down to ten men doubled my players' motivation and you really couldn't tell it was ten aganist eleven. It was absolutely exceptional - esecially against a team of such quality."

London test
Monaco captain Ludovic Giuly was once again a key figure in the victory but he was keen to point out that the tie is far from over. "It is played over two matches so we have to make sure that no one gets carried away with this result," he told uefa.com. "It's going to be twice as difficult in London, but if we play like we did in the second half then we have a chance."

'Too cautious'
Like his coach, Giuly felt the game hinged on the sending off. "We knew that we needed to win the home leg to have a chance, which is why we dug deep in the second half. We were too cautious at first but after the red card we just let ourselves go and gave absolutely everything."

Stinging talk
Monaco goalkeeper Flavio Roma revealed how Deschamps delivered a stinging half-time team talk which helped spur the team on. "He really had some hard words to say and that's why we came out flying in the second half," said the Italian.

Ranieri forlorn
Chelsea looked to seize the initiative by throwing on Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink as a third striker with nearly half an hour remaining, but the switch failed to ignite the visitors. "I brought on Jimmy because I wanted to win on the night," explained dejected Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri. "It was the worst I've seen my team play. In the last 15 minutes we completely lost the plot. We stopped passing the ball, everyone tried to run with it themselves and we didn't give our three strikers a chance."

'Individual' effort
Danish winger Jesper Grønkjær admitted that Chelsea did not perform as a unit. "We worked hard, we worked so hard," he said. "The problem is that we worked as individuals and not as a team. I don't think we lost concentration because it was the semi-final of the Champions League and everyone was so focused. But football is like that sometimes, we'd only conceded one away goal all season, then we go and concede three tonight."

'Little consolation'
Chelsea striker Eidur Gudjohnsen has not given up hope of reaching the final, but he realises the size of the task in hand. "We're going to have to produce fireworks in the second leg," the Icelandic international told uefa.com. "We'll go for it right from the first whistle. We have an away goal at least but that is little consolation because we were in complete control in the first half. It's such a disappointing result but our performance simply wasn't good enough."

Lightning counterattacks
As Chelsea pushed men forward in search of a winner, Monaco hit them with two lightning counterattacks. "When they had three up front we had more space," Deschamps explained. "I decided to leave two attackers on because I have faith in my defence and I wanted us to score."

Nonda delight
Fernando Morientes made it 2-1 with a stunning finish on 78 minutes to ensure that he remains one goal ahead of Pršo at the top of the Champions League scoring charts with eight goals, before Shabani Nonda, on as an 83rd-minute substitute, scored with his first touch. "3-1 is a fantastic result considering the circumstances," said Nonda, recently back after a lengthy injury. "It's certainly the fastest goal I've ever scored and I'm absolutely thrilled."