Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has admitted that last night’s shock defeat at the hands of FC Basel was entirely down to him and he accepts full responsibility for the defeat.
The Blues started the game well and gained the lead after a neat finish from Brazilian Oscar, but then it all went downhill in their first Champions League game of the season.
Goals from Mohamed Salah and Marco Streller turned the game on it’s head and silenced Stamford Bridge as the Swiss side took a shock lead and managed to hold on to the lead to pick up an impressive three points.
After the game, Mourinho was honest and took blame for the defeat, admitting that it was his team selection that lost them the game.
“When we lose I don’t speak about the players or individuals, I speak about my responsibility,” said Mourinho. “I am responsible”.
“I rotate my team because I have to. I kept the structure of the team and the players must fight for position. It was not individuals who lost the match”.
He then continued: “We lost three points that we must get somewhere,” said the Portuguese. “We must get them, in Basel, or Schalke, or Bucharest, or all of them or some of them.
“Normally you have to win the matches at home and get a few points away. Now we must win six points at home, Schalke and Steaua, but we have also to win points away.
“Probably we have to go to win at Basel to compensate for the defeat today.
“But the objective of finishing in the top two in the group phase and to go to the next stage of the Champions League is an objective that is not lost – far from it.
“It’s an objective we’re going to fight for and it’s an objective that I believe very, very much that we’re going to achieve.”
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt
