Scolari bemoans defending

Nov 27 2008

Luiz Felipe Scolari blamed his team's poor defending after Chelsea blew their second chance to qualify for the Champions League knockout stages.

Chelsea had looked certain to reach the next phase when Nicolas Anelka put them in front on the hour with his 14th of the season, but unmarked Alou Diarra headed an 82nd-minute equaliser to put Bordeaux level and Roma's win against Cluj left Chelsea in second place in Group A.

"I am not satisfied with the goal we gave away," said Scolari. "It was a bad goal for us. We work on this in training and it is the first time in my period as Chelsea coach that we have conceded a goal from a corner."

He added: "We scored our goal and but let them back into it and lost one player. That allowed Bordeaux to create more opportunities.

"The players did not relax. They respected the other team. But we made a mistake. We knew who should be marking the player and who should mark the ball, but mistakes happen.

"It was not because my players thought they had won the game, it was a mistake.

"Now we need to beat Cluj but if I thought my players did not have the quality to beat them at home, then it is better I go back to Brazil and stay there.

"We need to think about qualifying. Not this week but next week we will sit down and discuss why we have let two chances go.

"Qualification is still in our hands although we may not finish top of the group. But when we started the campaign, I didn't think about finishing second because I thought I had the players to arrive in first position in the group.

"But that is not in our hands any more because we lost these two points to Bordeaux."