Chelsea’s Juan Mata has promised that his side will give it their all to rescue their Champions League campaign.
Mata scored against Napoli at Stadio San Paolo on Tuesday evening, but his side went on to lose 3-1 as Ezequiel Lavezzi (2) and Edinson Cavani got the goals that put more pressure on Blues boss Andre Villas-Boas and put the Serie A side on the brink of the last eight.
Chelsea’s defending for all three of Napoli’s goals, especially the third, was pretty porous, but Spanish attacker Mata has promised that they will give one hundred percent in their efforts to keep their European campaign alive.
The former Valencia man lamented on Sky Sports News: "1-0 would have been an excellent result for us but we didn't keep it.
"Napoli are a very strong team in this stadium but now we have the second game and we are going to put in one hundred percent at the Bridge.
"I knew it would be an open game because Napoli are offensive with three players, Cavani, Lavezzi and (Marek) Hamsik who are very fast on the counter-attack.
"But today we had a lot of chances to score and we will have to convert those chances at the Bridge.
"I have confidence in this team, we are not dead. It will not be easy for us but I think we can do it."
Petr Cech in the Chelsea goal kept out further Napoli chances and the Czech stopper admitted that the Blues have mistakes to atone for in the second leg in three weeks’ time, and in doing so give their under-fire boss a dig out.
"We know he (Villas-Boas) keeps working hard for us,” said Cech.
"He prepares every game with one hundred percent commitment and we appreciate it as players.
"But if you have players on the pitch making mistakes he can't help it.”
On the game, Cech added: "I think it was an amazing game for the supporters to watch. There were a lot of counter-attacks, shots and chances.
"But if you come to a place where they are strong at scoring and leave them so many moments you can get punished.
"We went 1-0 up and had a spell where we controlled the game but they got a goal just before half-time that made a difference because they could sit back and wait for the counter-attack.
"We tried to score and it became dangerous for us as they looked for a third goal.
"When everything goes wrong you have a rebound like we did for the third goal. The bounce went in the perfect place for them.
"We always say we keep working hard on the training ground but unfortunately we don't seem to transport that that on the pitch.
"We have quality players who can turn it around but it could be better because we don't have time to recover. We have a lot of games coming up and we are not in a position to drop many points in league.
"It's not an ideal situation but we are still in the Champions League and we will fight to the end."