Chelsea Benitez: we deserved the victory

Chelsea boss Rafa Benitez praised his side’s second-half performance after their dramatic last-gasp win in Europa League final.

Fernando Torres opened the scoring after 60 minutes only to see his effort cancelled out by Cardozo’s penalty eight minutes later. Ivanovic headed home deep into added time to bring his side a famous victory. Benitez was quick to admit his side has been completely outplayed in the opening half and praised their strong character that allowed them to bounce back and secure a win.

He said: “I think it was a great performance in the second half. We had some problems in the first half against a very good team, but I am really pleased for the players and everyone involved. We didn’t have the legs and we had to adjust and push them, but in the end we deserved it because we have worked so hard the whole season.”

Benitez has been working under constant pressure from the side of the fans who were disappointed with his appointment following the sacking of popular Di Matteo. The Spaniard revealed he is delighted he managed to succeed even though many fans felt he is inappropriate for the job. He stated: “I am really pleased and really proud because it was not easy. We have been talking about this the whole time. If you have to win for people to realise the job we are doing? Well, we won. Hopefully now people will say it is not bad. It depends on the perception. But if you analyse everything, we won the Europa League with one striker for every single game. We managed players with yellow cards. Today we only had 18 players.

“If you put everything together you will realise how hard it is. I think we did well. This is a team in transition, with young players. You could see the commitment of the players on the pitch. When you have a manager who will leave at the end of the season but they still fight and work hard, you have to be pleased,” he added.