Chelsea midfielder Deco is shown a red card
Luiz Felipe Scolari last night told his
Chelsea
team they must wipe out silly mistakes if they want to
return to Rome for the Champions League Final next
May.
Scolari's team were soundly beaten by a Roma side who are in the
bottom four of Serie A. The Italians were 3-0 up after 58 minutes,
with former Chelsea defender Christian Panucci scoring the first
goal.
In last night's other action, Liverpool were seconds away from a
home loss to Atletico Madrid before Steven Gerrard earned and
converted a dubious penalty to keep Rafa Benitez's side on
course.
'We made mistakes at critical times and gave Roma their two best
chances,' said Scolari, who saw midfielder Deco sent off in the
80th minute for a second yellow card. 'For the first goal, the ball
was with us. We tried to play the short ball when we shouldn't have
and they pressured us and got the foul. It was not the time to play
balls like that. Then nobody followed Panucci at the goal.'
Serbian Mirko Vucinic grabbed two more before John Terry's late
consolation. Then Deco was shown a second yellow card for taking a
free-kick too quickly, having been booked in the first half for a
foul.
Scolari added: 'If you score first against Roma, maybe you have
a chance but the second goal killed us. Maybe in the future we'll
need to be more relaxed. At 1-0, the game isn't finished. We need
to talk more, train more and maybe we won't make these
mistakes.'
The Chelsea manager was furious with Deco's red card. 'If it was
a Roma player, he wouldn't have received a red card, for sure.'
One win from their last two games, away to Bordeaux and at home
to Cluj, will see Chelsea through to the last 16.
Scolari said: 'The group is open for all. We need three points.
The other clubs need maybe to win two games or it's
impossible.'