Galatasaray 1 Chelsea 1: Jose Mourinho rues inability to finish off opponents, saying Champions League draw was 'an opportunity missed'
The Blues were unable to add to Fernando Torres' early goal
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Your support makes all the difference.Jose Mourinho complained that his Chelsea team are unable to kill off opponents after they let Galatasaray back into their Champions League last 16 first leg to claim a 1-1 draw.
It still leaves Chelsea in the driving seat for the second leg at Stamford Bridge in three weeks' time but it could have been better for them. Fernando Torres scored the first goal for an English team in European competition in seven hours and 58 minutes of competition but John Chedjou equalised for Galatasaray in the second half after Mourinho's side had spurned the opportunity to put the game out of reach.
Mourinho said: "That's our team. Our team. Some other teams have three chances and score three goals. We have five and score one. This is not a criticism of the strikers, like sometimes people think. It's just the profile of the team we have. We create but we arrive in the last third of the pitch and the last decision, the correct pass, the right movement is something that is not right at the moment. We are not a team who kills opponents.
"We are paying for that in the Premier league, losing points, and in the Champions League we might have got a different result. But they all give everything. They fight for each other, work for each other, have tactical discipline. I cannot be critical. They got a very acceptable result in a stadium where it's difficult to play and difficult to win. I think they did a good job.“
After the game, Samuel Eto'o, a second half substitute, said that there was "no problem" between him and Mourinho over the comments made by the Chelsea manager in the conversation secretly recorded by Canal Plus.
Mourinho acknowledged that it was, on the basis of the first half, "an opportunity missed". He added: "The second half, a fair result. In the first half we were the best team. We had two, three, four situations where, normally, you have to be effective and score. But in the second half they put more pressure on us. We were more defensive. At the same time, Fernando was dangerous.
"He was really tired and asked me to make the change, so we lost a bit of power in attack. We were comfortable defensively. We conceded a goal from a corner, which is something I and the players don't like, but they were stronger and put more pressure on us in the second half. The result, in the end, was fair."
Galatasaray coach Roberto Mancini said his team struggled in the first half, "because we played with fear in the first 25 minutes and conceded a lot of space. They wanted this, this counter-attacking, because they're strong on that. We made three or four mistakes, played with fear.
"After this game, we have a 40% chance to go through. We have more chance now than before the game."
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