Mourinho turns his torment into triumph

Jose Mourinho had done all he could to make last night's Champions League match appear to be business as usual. But at the end of an evening when his side's place in the last eight had appeared in severe jeopardy, his relief - and the warmth of his feelings for the club he guided to Champions League victory in 2004 - became evident. This was no ordinary tie.

The Chelsea manager described his opponents in the programme notes as "a big club with a good history and a good team now with ambitions", a curiously deficient description which he made up for after his team avoided what would have been only the third home defeat under his charge.

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"I think Porto were better than us in the first half," he said. "It was a tie until the last second, because Porto were just one goal from qualifying. It was going to the wire. And I said to their coach Manuel Ferreira just a few minutes ago that I thought they had to be sad because they went out, but they had to be happy because they did well."

Mourinho denied he had left the club who are now back on course to win the Portuguese title in acrimonious circumstances. "My departure from Porto was a friendly one," he said. "There was no war."

He also addressed the topic which has surfaced throughout a season when his relations with the club's owner, Roman Abramovich - perched in his familiar eyrie up in the West Stand and looking, as usual, like a man uncertain whether to stay or go - have prompted energetic speculation.

Having announced within the space of a fortnight first that he would never walk away from the club, and then that it would cost Abramovich an oilfield if he was sacked, he reverted to option one last night.

"Since I came to Chelsea many things have been said that are not true," he added. "It is not the case that I want to leave. I want to stay with the club. I want to make Chelsea one of the best teams in the world."

Words that will be music to the ears of the Chelsea fans, sweeter even than the familiar strains of "Blue is the Colour" which were dutifully accompanied before and after the game.

Flags had waved from every part of the stadium beforehand, as if the stands had been taken over by giant butterflies. But by half-time, there was a deepening sense that Chelsea were not waving, but drowning.

"Tonight you have flags given to you," Mourinho added in his notes. "I know you will give your voices to us." He was correct - and the early chants all featured his name.

During half-time, he made his name once again with a tactical arrangement that re-set the direction of the tie, bolstering midfield by moving Lassana Diarra forward from full-back and adding John Obi Mikel to the equation. It was as masterly as the Quaresma goal which had wrenched the match out of Chelsea's grip in the 15th minute.

Would that perfectly timed run by Quaresma have been picked up by John Terry if the Chelsea captain had been fit to play? A hypothetical question. What seemed clear was that Michael Essien, for all his superb combativeness, had been momentarily discovered as a natural midfielder rather than a natural central defender.

Mourinho had been an increasingly hunched figure on the bench during the first half, but his joyous transformation as Arjen Robben's fortunate shot brought Chelsea level said all that was needed about just how ordinary a match this was for the former Porto manager.