Grant: We Dominated, But This Is Football

Chelsea manager Avram Grant could not believe his side's ill fortune after a couple of lapses in concentration saw The Blues open the scoring but lose 2-1 to Fenerbahçe in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal clash...

Chelsea looked the more confident side from the off and somewhat fortuitously opened the scoring when Deivid put Malouda's cross past his own keeper.

It took until after the break and the introduction of Colin 'Kazim Kazim' Richards - formerly of Sheffield United - before the home side looked like causing any problems to their more illustrious visitors.

This Is Football

It was Kazim who drew his side level following a magnificent pass from Aurélio, and Deivid gave Fener the win with a magnificent shot from distance that, quite literally, came out of nowhere.

"A game that should have been 3-0 or 4-0 for us turned to 2-1 against us," Grant told Sky Sports News after the game.

"It was good until the first goal. We dominated the game, we created chances - we could have scored even at 1-1 - Michael Ballack was in front of the goal.

"But this is football: sometimes you don't pay attention, you slip, and we lost the game.

"It's difficult, because at one end they played very good football here today, we dominated the game, at the other end we lost the game.

"Even in the second half we started well."

Disappointed

The Israeli manager was keen to highlight that, due to the away goal, 2-1 still gives Chelsea some kind of advantage - perhaps not using his words so well when he called it a "good result" - but he bemoaned the outcome of the game due to his side's dominance for large periods.

"Losing 2-1 away from home. it's a good result, but because we played better football we are disappointed," said Grant.

We Need To Win

He remained sure that home advantage would prove decisive in the second leg: "Now they're coming to our home, we need to win the game."

No Lampard Problem

Frank Lampard was pulled off before the 90 minutes - something that is far from a regular occurence - and looked slightly disgruntled when his number came up. Grant insisted the midfielder is okay, and it was an action taken purely due to his questionable fitness following recent illness.

"No, Frank Lampard was okay. I don't see any problem," declared Grant. "After he was sick, he was not ready to play 90 minutes.

"I think he played good. He did everything that he could. He did only two training sessions, he was very sick."

Professional

The former director of football is sure his side will have the professional attitude required to recover not only for the weekend's game against Manchester City in the league, but the return leg of this tie in six days' time.

"They are professional," Grant said of his squad. "Now we need to play good on Saturday, win the game - and it's not an easy game against Manchester City - and then to do in our home what we need to do.

"I feel good. If we play like we played most of the game and we concentrate, we can win the game."

Chet Winter