Chelsea on brink of last 16 after Maccabi win

Mourinho, who is expected to name an experienced team for Tuesday’s Champions League clash against Maccabi Tel-Aviv, said 19-year-old Ruben Loftus-Cheek has to do more to get regular game time.

Chelsea’s win over Maccabi, which also saw Willian, Gary Cahill and Oscar get their names on the scoresheet in Israel moves them top of Group G with a favourable chance of qualifying for the Champions League’s last 16.

“The surface was bad and unsafe”, Mourinho said.

“We already had one injury on this pitch in training with Ramires”, he said.

Picking up three points has been a really good feeling. John is a special guy, with a special desire to recover.

“Ramires slid and had a muscular injury and John has an ankle problem that we don’t know yet the damage”.

Mourinho blamed the poor quality of the field at Sammy Ofer Stadium for the late ankle injury which caused Chelsea captain John Terry to be taken off on a stretcher.

“I don’t expect Chelsea to be complacent, this will be a very important match for them. [Maccabi] don’t deserve such a hard punishment – they did OK for periods of the game with 10 men”.

Willian scored his fourth set-piece goal in five Champions League matches with 17 minutes to play, and Oscar put the game out of reach with a powerful header from six yards on 77 minutes.

As the rest of the Chelsea side celebrated, Costa took the opportunity to square up to Ben Haim I, while Jose Mourinho ran onto the pitch to flatten out some of the treacherous divots. “I think he’s a really big doubt”.

Whether a resurgence, following the win over Norwich, is real will be tested by Spurs, who play in Azerbaijan on Thursday night, with Sunday’s noon kick-off time angering Mauricio Pochettino.

Zouma then headed home with comparable authority and the victory means Chelsea are level on 10 points with Porto ahead of welcoming the Portuguese giants to Stamford Bridge, with Kiev poised two points further back.

Chelsea initially failed to make the most of the one-man advantage and nearly let their lead slip after the restart, the visitors needing Asmir Begovic to pull off two excellent saves to deny Dasa and Zahavi. I expect we will be more competitive in this match, however, and the aim is to win.

“Everything is open for the last match and in this moment we are in a good position”.