Mourinho rues ‘opportunity missed’

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho acknowledged that the 1-1 draw against Galatasaray in Istanbul in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie had to go down as ‘an opportunity missed’.

The London club took an early lead through Fernando Torres at the Turk Telecom Arena, but they failed to capitalise on their good start and Galatasaray came back to equalise midway through the second half courtesy Aurelien Chedjou.

That means the tie remains open ahead of next month’s return at Stamford Bridge, when it could have been over after half an hour in Istanbul.

“The first half was an opportunity missed,” Mourinho said. “The second half was a fair result. In the first half we were the better team. We had three or four chances, but then they put more pressure on us and we were more defensive.

“We were comfortable defensively but conceded a goal at a corner, which I don’t like (but) I think it was a fair result.”

Chelsea now turn their attentions back to the Premier League and two London derbies, away to Fulham and at home to Tottenham Hotspur. And they do so as the only English side to avoid defeat, or even score a goal, in the Champions League in the last two weeks in the wake of poor results for Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid cruised to a rare victory on German soil as they romped to a 6-1 win at Schalke 04 and are all but guaranteed a quarter-final place even.

Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Real’s Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice in the rout.

“The team has played a lot of good games and this is one more,” said Ronaldo. “We played well and didn’t allow Schalke to play at their best. We are happy and a step away from the next round.”