Final whistle verdict: Three good points

Jose Mourinho was pleased to have left Lisbon with maximum points following our 1-0 win against Sporting in the Portuguese capital.

The Blues were dangerous throughout, creating plenty of opportunities to score either side of the interval. Ultimately, however, a solitary first-half goal from Nemanja Matic was enough to secure the victory at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.

The result, coupled with Schalke’s 1-1 draw with Maribor, leaves us top of Group G, and the manager began by explaining why the margin of victory did not matter…

‘It’s three points,’ said Mourinho. ‘This is not a knockout where goals are fundamental, this is points. We lost two points at home, we recovered that and because of the other draw we are in a position where I would not say we are comfortable but we can control our destiny.

‘Our next two matches are against Maribor. If we get six points we will go to 10, job done.

‘Now we just have to focus on beating Maribor which I believe will not be easy because to draw in Germany means something.’

Mourinho detailed why he introduced John Mikel Obi with 20 minutes remaining...
‘I thought we could draw. If we didn’t have the efficiency to take our opportunities then bringing onMikel to accompany Matic was the decision. It was something we discussed at half-time.

‘Sometimes a game like this can end up 4-0 or 5-0, but in this case it was a 1-0 that was quite well-managed because we had to bear in mind the positioning of the team. That was really important to close the doors that would lead to a goal and eventually mean a draw.’

Rui Patricio, the Sporting goalkeeper, made a number of excellent saves, and Mourinho spoke to him on the pitch at the final whistle...
‘I’m not going to repeat the words because they surely would be censored, but it had something to do with spoiling the night!’

It was Sporting Lisbon’s first Champions League home game in five years...
‘They waited for the end; they waited for the luck that usually comes at the end of a game. Although they’re a young team they showed they’re mature enough to deal with this environment.

‘They showed they were at ease, and they could even beat us or the other teams in the remaining games in this group.’

John Terry reached a century of Champions League appearances tonight, excluding qualifiers...
‘The club of 100 games in the Champions League is a restricted one. Only a very few have done it for the same club. He was probably not captain for all 100 but surely in at least 90 of them.

‘He is a historic player and he will go down in the history of the club.’