Villas-Boas hopeful despite loss

Andre Villas-Boas insists Chelsea can still progress to the Champions League quarter-finals despite their heavy defeat at Napoli on Tuesday.

Chelsea scored first through Juan Mata at Stadio San Paolo, but an Ezequiel Lavezzi brace and an Edinson Cavani goal gave Napoli a 3-1 win in the first leg of their round-of-16 tie, a handy buffer to take to Stamford Bridge on March 14.

Villas-Boas lamented his side’s defending and is hopeful they can turn around the deficit in three weeks time.

“After the first goal I think we had a big chance to go 2-0 up – big missed opportunities,” Villas-Boas told Sky Sports.

“Then we should have done better defending. (We made) a couple of mistakes which, against Napoli, with their attacking strength, are going to get punished. I think that the third goal was perfectly avoidable.”

“If it had been a one-goal advantage at home, it would have been better, but the third one is more difficult to recover – not impossible, of course, because of the amount of chances that we get and the environment that we must get at the Bridge to turn this tie around.”

“The first 90 minutes have passed but we have 90 minutes ahead of us and we have to turn the tie around, analyse strongly where we went wrong, and have the knowledge that we can create problems because, with our attacking options, we created problems today.”

The under-fire coach was bullish when asked if he would still be in charge for second leg.

“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “I don’t think it makes a difference (if the board back me publicly). You have to put things into perspective.”

“I have the full confidence of the owner with the message that I have from him all the time to do my job.”

Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri was delighted with the win, but was slightly disappointed that Christian Maggio squandered a chance to make it 4-1 late on, when his shot was cleared off the line by Ashley Cole.

“We could have scored the fourth goal but we were unlucky with the Maggio shot in the final minutes,” he said.

“It’s a pity because we would have been calmer with a three-goal lead. Chelsea are very strong at home so we need another great performance there.”

“We are fully aware that we are not in the quarter-finals yet.”

“This team keeps on surprising me. After starting well we did fantastically to react after conceding like that. It’s normal to not always be at 100 percent but we have never failed in the big games this season.”