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Chelsea quality crushes ambitious Betis
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-20 09:03
"I will not accept that we should have had problems in set pieces in the
first 20 minutes," Mourinho said.
"To be fair they had a very good start. They were always dangerous until we
scored the third goal (after 59 minutes) which killed the game," Mourinho said.
"In the second half they tried but they gave us a lot of space and we scored
two more goals where maybe we could have had four or five," he said.
Chelsea sliced open Betis's defence with goals from Didier Drogba and Ricardo
Carvalho in the first half and Joe Cole and Hernan Crespo after the break.
Asked what message the rout sent to other European hopefuls, Mourinho said he
did not want to send messages.
"We just want to achieve our targets and our targets are to win the
Premiership and at this moment to be in the next stages of the Champions
League," Mourinho said.
"In the Champions League we now have seven points. It's not decided yet but I
think we are in a very good position to qualify," he added.
They are top of the group with Liverpool, three points clear of Betis with
Anderlecht bottom and yet to gain a point.
Chelsea, whose billionaire owner Roman Abramovich wants the club to dominate
in Europe, are already nine points clear at home, having won every Premier
League match this season.
Losing at the semi-final stage for the last two seasons has sharpened their
European hunger, however.
Betis coach Lorenzo Serra Ferrer said the match was a learning curve for his
side, playing in the competition for the first time.
"We played a great side and it was a big lesson," Serra Ferrer said.
"Chelsea competed better and fought harder on the 50-50 balls. They were more
sure of themselves and more decisive in front of goal," he added.
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