Mourinho hails players after Blues victory

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho praised his players for overcoming an uncertain start to beat Schalke 3-0 and take a big step towards the knockout stages of the Champions League.

The German side started well at Stamford Bridge before two goals from Samuel Eto’o put Mourinho’s men in control and Demba Ba sealed the victory with a late volley.

It leaves the Blues three points clear at the top of Group E, with their surprise home defeat against Basel now a distant memory.

Mourinho said: “We started a bit nervous and made a lot of mistakes.

“We lost a lot of balls in dangerous positions and allowed Schalke to counter-attack with some danger.

“They had two good situations but after that our team recovered the balance and we controlled the game.

“We had comfortable possession, recovering the ball and playing in an aggressive way – attacking the spaces with two, three or four players.

“When we lost the ball we were aggressive the way we pressed and the way we defended.  We won in a comfortable way.

“The Basel [defeat] put us in a difficult situation and it is fantastic that after the fourth fixture we have almost qualified.”

The strength of Chelsea’s squad was again evident, with Frank Lampard, Juan Mata, David Luiz and Ashley Cole among the substitutes for their seventh win in eight matches, while Fernando Torres was out injured.

Eden Hazard, meanwhile, was left out of the squad after the Belgian’s poor timekeeping meant he failed to show up for a pre-match training session.

Mourinho explained: “I don’t want to lie. He is not injured, he forgot the time.

“He is a kid and kids make mistakes. ‘Fathers’ have to be clever in the way they educate their ‘sons’.

“He is sad because he didn’t play. We won without him and Saturday he is back. End of story.”

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