Chelsea 2 Galatasaray 0: Roberto Mancini apologises to Galatasaray supporters after woeful Champions League exit
The Turkish side were outclassed by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge
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Your support makes all the difference.Maybe it is something about the away dug-out at Stamford Bridge that loosens coaches' tongues and bares their emotions. Last week a rookie coach, Tim Sherwood, castigated his Tottenham team after losing 4-0 to Chelsea. Tonight the far more experienced Roberto Mancini was just as critical of his Galatasaray players.
After the Turkish club slid tamely to a 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge, going out 3-1 on aggregate to Chelsea in the Champions League round of 16, the former Manchester City manager said: “I'm very disappointed. This game was difficult and it was more difficult after we conceded in four minutes. But we played really bad, we did not deserve to do nothing, Chelsea played better than us.
“I don't know why. After the game we played in Istanbul I was confident we could play well and have a chance to score. Instead we did nothing on the pitch and now I want to talk to my players. If we want to play in this level we need to work more.
“I am very sorry for our supporters, for us they were the best players in the stadium."
Of Didier Drogba's performance on his return to Chelsea, Mancini said: “If we don't create a chance it is difficult for him.” Mancini added: “The more experienced players did nothing, but we did not have any player who played the game.”
“The most difficult thing for Didier was the way his team played,” said Jose Mourinho. “When you are a striker if your team does not produce attacking football you are a lonely man, So he could not do much, but Gary [Cahill] and John [Terry] gave a fantastic performance.”
Mourinho added of the match: “We were really much better than Galatasaray was. The result could be a little bit bigger. We had the best chances to score the third goal.
“We were very solid, very compact, no fears. I think we had a very good approach to the game because 1-1 is a difficult result, even when winning 2-0 it is difficult as if they score you are on the limit. The team was very confident, very much in control for the 90 minutes which is difficult.
Mourinho was so relaxed he was even able to praise the German referee, Felix Brych. “I didn't like the two yellow cards [for Oscar and Branislav Ivanovic] but I thought he had a very solid performance. There was a beautiful tackle Oscar did that, with another referee, would have been a second yellow card, but this referee saw it perfectly.”
Who did Mourinho want in the next round? Seizing a chance to re-iterate his mantra that Chelsea are a young side he said: “All the big teams are there, the big candidates to win the competition, we would welcome any of them. It would be good for the evolution of our team to play one of the best.”
While Mourinho tipped Manchster United to join Chelsea in the last eight by overturning their 2-0 deficit to Olympiakos on Wednesday Mancini, as a parting shot, tipped his old team, Manchester City, to win the Premier League as 'they have the best players'. His successor, Mauricio Pellegrini, will doubtless be delighted.
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