Chelsea FC News: Mourinho Sympathises with City
Chelsea turned a supposed draw against Manchester City into a win, thanks to a miscommunication between City goalkeeper Joe Hart and defender Matija Nastasic.
Striker Fernando Torres took full advantage of such blunder and converted a late strike at extra-time.
Blues boss Jose Mourinho felt relieved and felt that his team deserved the full three points with the way that they played.
"First of all, I feel sympathy with them because I know how it is to lose in the last minute," Mourinho told chelseafc.com.
"It's a very difficult feeling, but of course it's a great moment for us. In the first half we played fantastic against a fantastic team, which isn't easy. We were better than them which isn't easy. We could have scored three goals in the first half, we were dominant, we played well, we played beautiful."
Andre Schurrle scored the first goal for Chelsea, coming from a low cross from Torres at the 33rd minute.
However, City was able to get back in the game as Sergio Aguero found a way to place the ball at the left upper-corner despite the difficult angle four minutes after the break to have the score tied at 1-1.
"In the second half we played against a great team, with a tornado arriving, the wind was very strong against us and pushed us back. They scored a goal and after that the game was 50-50, it could go one way or another," he added.
Mourinho disclosed that he instructed his team to take some risks to secure a winner.
"When everybody was expecting a draw, even ourselves, I tried to play Samuel and give a bit more but I didn't want to risk too much. It was the kind of game that you wanted to win but you didn't want to lose, because if you lose it you lose points against a title contender, so I wanted to take a risk but with balance," he revealed.
"They didn't want to either because they changed a striker for a striker and put Kolarov in midfield, they were happy with a point. The goal comes through a very intelligent action by Fernando. It was a misunderstanding between Joe Hart and Nastastic but Fernando was very clever with the way he did it."
Mourinho implied that Torres served as Chelsea's catalyst on offence throughout the game, who never gave up despite missing earlier chances.
"Everything that happened (with Torres) came after he missed the easy chance," Mourinho told SkySports.
"(It was) amazing. When you are a player and you make a mistake you are finished for the game."
"After that you saw the best Fernando. He won the first goal and worked unbelievably for the team."