Carlo Ancelotti was unhappy with his players following the 1-0 victory in Cyprus.
Carlo Ancelotti's patience snapped last night as the Italian delivered his own furious post-match assessment of his players' slack display after an unconvincing 1-0 victory over Apoel Nicosia. John Terry also conceded that Chelsea will have to perform far more convincingly if they are to beat Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday.
The Italian was not fooled by his side's first win on foreign soil in this competition for almost two years and, once back in the dressing room after the final whistle, he is understood to have angrily told his players that this performance was unacceptable.
Chelsea's squad had conducted their own inquest into their sloppy defeat at Wigan on Saturday but, with that meeting having clearly failed to rouse them, Ancelotti took it upon himself to stress that he expects better from now on.
Chelsea may have won this game, but they were sloppy in their passing and might have conceded an equaliser as they laboured in the latter stages.
"I'm not satisfied," said the manager afterwards. "I wanted Chelsea to play better and to take more control, to play with courage. We have to change, for sure. The players did strong work, for sure, and ran a lot on the pitch, but we have to play better. It was a good result but not a good performance, particularly in the second half. We tried to control the game with possession, but we made a lot of mistakes.
Sometimes that happens: We allowed Nicosia to get back into the game. We would not be so lucky if we played like that against Liverpool. But we will not play like we did today. We will play better, for sure."
That necessity was reiterated by Terry, with the visitors having been grateful for an early goal from Nicolas Anelka – "We have to be better against Liverpool," said the Chelsea captain. "They are a very good side who had a tough result in Florence on Tuesday. They will be up for it and they are a big club, so we will have to respond again when we play them.
"Ideally you want to play well and win, and we haven't been at our best tonight, but there were times when we passed it well enough and we came away with three points. This is a difficult place to come. Teams are getting better and better in the Champions League. We were a bit slow in the tempo occasionally, but we won the game.
"I have a lot of faith in this team and these players," said the Chelsea manager. "I was a player for a long time myself and I know things do not always go well, so you cannot be angry with the players always. Milan losing at home to Zurich tonight shows there are no easy games in the Champions League. But I'd just like Chelsea to play better than we did this evening."
