Chelsea's Anfield victory is the perfect spur for the team to play 'the match of our lives' against Atletico, says Cesar Azpilicueta.
The Spanish fullback, who is one of only three of Jose Mouringo's weekend starting XI that is expeced to line-up for the Champions League semi final second leg on Wednesday, says Chelsea always knew they had it in them to beat the Reds.
“We had a lot of difficulties,” said Azpilicueta. “We had players missing and have the match of our lives to come on Wednesday, but we played well and showed how strong our squad is. It’s an achievement from everyone.”
The 24-year-old says the speculation about Chelsea's intentions in the match was never an issue inside the camp, with players always fully aware that the orders would be to go out and win.
“We knew what was being said by (Mourinho) on the inside,” he said.
“We knew the fans here would expect us to fight. We couldn’t come here and give the game away easily because we’re not like this.
“We tried to give everything and even with the all the difficulties we had, we won at Anfield.”
With Manchester City seemingly the main beneficiaries of Chelsea's victory, the young defender is refusing to be lured into talk of a slim chance of Chelsea themselves getting back into the title race.
“I’m just happy to win three points here,” he said. “Now we have our minds solely on Wednesday night (against Atletico).
“We are just looking at this. After we will see. We know we have two more games in the League against Norwich and Cardiff, but all our attention is on Wednesday.”
