Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho dished out praise for his players following their injury time 2-2 draw against Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday. "The performance was brilliant," Mourinho said in a post-game press conference. "The team played very well, they were very strong physically and very strong mentally. “Tactically we were always in control against a very strong team,” he added. Didier Drogba netted the equalizer for Chelsea deep into injury time to send the Premiership champions back to London with a precious point that kept them in charge of their Group A. The Portuguese coach, however, believes his team deserved the entire cake. "We had a lot of chances to score...there was no doubt we deserved the goal and maybe a bit more,” he said. Deco had put Barcelona ahead as early as the 3rd minute while Frank Lampard tied the game seven minutes after restart. Drogba's late goal cancelled out Eidur Gudjohnsen's 58th minute goal that put Barcelona 2-1 up.
The match was highly charged "It was very difficult when we conceded an early goal but the team played with a lot of confidence," said the former Porto manager. As usual, Mourinho's comments did not lack flair or controversy as he criticized the fashion in which Barcelona's “stars” played. "I think it is not easy for a referee to be a referee when the players are diving minute after minute. "I think Frank Rijkaard is a lucky manager because his Barcelona stars are protected match after match," said Mourinho. The highly charged game saw Italian referee Stefano Farina dole out 10 yellow cards, 6 of which were for Chelsea's players. "Sometimes there were seven or eight players surrounding the referee asking him to give cards. "It's not easy for the referee to be always under pressure from the players, turning round and rolling on the pitch. "It was both sides contributing but clearly one was doing it more than the other," said Mourinho in reference to Barcelona.
