Avram Grant remains confident despite Fenerbahce defeat
Grant felt Chelsea dominated the game despite slipping to a 2-1 defeat
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Wednesday, 02, Apr 2008 10:58
Chelsea manager Avram Grant remains confident his side will qualify for the Champions League semi-finals despite their 2-1 defeat to Fenerbahce.
Grant feels the Blues showed enough in the first leg to suggest they can create enough chances to comfortably win the second leg at Stamford Bridge next week.
The manager was a little disappointed Chelsea had not scored more in the first half in Istanbul to put the tie beyond their opponents before they had a chance to mount a fightback.
He said: "It was good until [Fenerbahce's] first goal. We dominated the game, we created chances, but this is football. You don't pay attention, you fall asleep and we lost the game.
"Even the second half we started well. It's disappointing.
Grant insisted that 2-1 was not a bad result away from home because they had claimed a vital away goal and that he would have wanted to win the second leg regardless of the first leg result.
He said: "Normally it's a good result to lose 2-1 away from home, but because we played the better football it's disappointing. They're coming to us now and we need to win the game."
Blues midfielder Michael Ballack echoed the thoughts of his manager and claimed the west London side were to blame for their own downfall.
"We threw it away. It was a good game. We controlled the first half. We didn't concentrate enough. We have to concentrate for 90 minutes," added Ballack.
Chelsea will hope the result against Fenerbahce does not distract them in their chase for the title when they travel to Manchester City on Saturday.