'We had chances to kill the game', admits Jose Mourinho after Chelsea draw with Galatasaray

The Portuguese manager was full of praise for his players' effort, but accepts his side could have put the tie to bed

Frustrated Jose Mourinho accused his Blues of lacking “killer instinct’’ in the 1-1 draw with Galatasaray and blowing the chance to guarantee their Champions League progress, writes Martin Lipton in Istanbul.

The Chelsea boss was powerless as his side failed to build on Fernando Torres' ninth-minute opener before conceding a soft second half equaliser from defender Aurelien Chedjou.

Chelsea remain favourites to go through to the quarter-finals from the second leg at Stamford Bridge next month, but Mourinho admitted: "It was an opportunity missed, especially in the first half.

"We had two, three, four situations where, normally, you have to be effective and score.

"I know that it’s been like that all season but that’s our team. Some other teams have three chances and score three goals. We have five and score one.

"This is not a criticism of the strikers, like sometimes people think. It’s just the profile of the team we have.

"We are not a team who kills opponents. We create but we arrive in the last third of the pitch and the last decision, the correct pass, is not right at the moment.

"So we are paying for that in the Premier league, losing points, and in the Champions League."

Torres was preferred to Samuel Eto’o, the subject of Mourinho’s controversially-captured comments about the deficiencies of his strike options.

The Cameroonian, a late replacement for Torres, insisted "I’ve no trouble with Mourinho" when asked for his response.

Galatasaray boss Roberto Mancini suggested the odds had shifted slightly towards his team, claiming they now had a "40 per cent" chance of going through after claiming Chelsea were ‘’80 per cent’’ likely to progress before the game.

That brought another withering put-down from the Portuguese, who replied: "I’m not good at maths. And football is not maths.

"If football was maths, I’d coach in the third division. Because football is not maths, I coach Chelsea."