Blues earn Jose admiration
11 Apr 2007 - 08:03:22
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- Blues earn Jose admiration
Jose Mourinho lavished praise on his Chelsea players after they secured a dramatic 2-1 victory at Valencia to clinch a place in the semi-finals of the Champions League.
Michael Essien's injury-time drive gave the Blues the win in the Mestalla and a 3-2 aggregate triumph, with a last four meeting with Liverpool likely to follow.
Mourinho said: "It was a great performance, especially in the second half. A great performance against a good team. We had a difficult start and were losing 1-0 and out of the competition.
"But the second half was amazing. We dominated the second half, but I did not have to give a hot half-time talk. I was just telling my players to be strong and to have a strong mentality.
"I am proud of this group because this is a special season. Nobody has had so many problems as we had. We have had big problems with more than 50 per cent of the team.
"But they resist and resist and mentally they are very strong. I could not be more proud of these players.
"I thought the team was very strong. I had the changes ready if it went to extra-time, but when I saw the ball in the net in the last minute with Valencia needing to score two, it was great."