Mourinho and Costa make up and make out

Maccabi kept up their attempts to penetrate the Chelsea defense, but their cause was undermined when Ben Haim was shown a red card for a wild kick on striker Diego Costa.

While the exact extent of either injury is known at this time, Mourinho’s not counting with his captain. “I was disappointed and I reacted. At half-time in the dressing room there were a few kisses and a few cuddles”.

Chelsea have no new injury concerns ahead of the match, with every player travelling to Israel despite heightened security following the attacks in Paris.

Chelsea are three points behind leaders Porto and two points clear of Dynamo Kiev, with Maccabi yet to record a win in Champions League Group G.

Mauricio Pochettino’s men sit top of Group J and could secure automatic progression to the knockout stage with a victory.

Mourinho added: ‘I was saying before, such a lovely stadium, such a fantastic public.

“I know – and also Chelsea – we know that sometimes you win when you are not the favourites”, he told reporters. With a draw, I don’t know.

“I think we played better matches than today, but we lost”.

Mourinho was happy with the first-half display, but felt the scoreline flattered his side.

“We were too confident, we were waiting for the second goal to come”.

“He is a player who we have lots of hope for, but sooner or later, he, not me, has to give one step forward to be more stable in the first team”. We really needed to win this match.

The Blues travel to White Hart Lane on Sunday on the back of successive wins over Maccabi Tel Aviv and Norwich City, but face the daunting task of taking points off Mauricio Pochettino’s resilient side.

The Blues return to Premier League action with an eagerly anticipated encounter away to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

“Hopefully we can put ourselves on a good run of games now and climb up this table. No problem”, Mourinho said. Only that stopped us playing better and cost us more goals.