Jose praises battling Blues
06 Aug 2007 - 07:32:24
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho refused to be downcast after seeing his injury-hit side lose on penalties to Manchester United in the Community Shield.
Mourinho was shorn of the services of several key players for the Wembley showpiece, most notably captain John Terry and last season's topscorer Didier Drogba, but he was enthused by his side's battling display.
He commented: "I am very happy with the players who took part.
"When you ask me about John Terry and Didier Drogba or Michael Ballack, Salomon Kalou or Claude Makelele - all of the boys who were not here - I don't want to go in that direction because I want to respect the players I had here.
"What makes me really happy and confident is that one side was a team almost in the maximum of their power, if you look at Manchester United's team last season and the team they played here.
"If you look at the Chelsea team, we are speaking about less than 50 per cent of the team, but we competed against them.
"They were not better than us. I am not going to say we were better than them, but it is fair to say nobody was better than anybody.
"We played without a striker in the first half and when you do that it is difficult to bring the game into the opponent's half, because you don't have a target man or someone to hold the ball up."