Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has blamed his side’s defeat on tiredness after he watched on as they slumped to a 1-0 defeat in Switzerland against FC Basel.
The Blues didn’t produce a single shot on goal throughout the 90-minutes and then conceded an 88th minute winner to Mohamed Salah to further ruin Mourinho’s night.
However, some positive news for Chelsea is that due to Schalke and Steau Bucharest drawing 0-0, it meant that the Premier League side qualified through to the knockout stages.
After the game, Mourinho, who was visibly annoyed with the performance, blamed the result on his players being tired.
“A bad performance, a deserved defeat – but because of other results we qualify mathematically and that is the only positive thing for this night that we qualify for last 16,” Mourinho told Sky Sports.
“Now we have to get a result at home to finish first, so that is the only positive thing.”
“I didn’t like it from the first minute, we started with a defensive mistake immediately, the first time we were in the game we made a defensive mistake – I think we only had a little bit of stability and control in second-half but I felt the team was tired.”
“The match against West Ham was crucial and everyone played a great intense game but I think today we paid a price, they were tired.
“There was no reaction, wrong decisions – so I am not so sad with them as I understand, the team was not fresh and maybe I should make more changes in the team.
“But when you get such a good performance against West Ham you have that temptation of playing the same team as they played so well, it is difficult to change them.
“I made one change with Eden (Hazard) as I thought he could make a difference coming from the bench but perhaps I should have changed more players.
“We should get a better result than this but I don’t blame the players, we have to rest and prepare for the game at the weekend because even with the defeat because of the nine points we are through, and that is the minimum we could do and now we have to fight for the first position.”
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles
