FERNANDO TORRES SAYS Chelsea’s Champions League triumph is a ‘dream come true’ for everyone associated with west London club.
Torres praised the hard work of the team, who turned their season around to secure Champions League glory over Bayern Munich last night.
Chelsea completed the European and FA Cup double after defeating Bayern in a dramatic penalty shootout in Munich.
Thomas Muller put Bayern in front on 83 minutes before Didier Drogba equalised with a header two minutes from time. Drogba, who conceded a penalty in extra-time only to see former team-mate Arjen Robben miss from the spot, then struck the winning effort in the shootout.
“This is a dream come true for everybody connected with the club, and not just for me,” Torres said. ”We felt at times throughout the season that we had nothing going for us but look at us now. We’ve won two trophies and that has given us the chance to fight for three more next season.
“This is football. You should never give up because the rewards are there if you work hard.”
“The way we played was a bit disappointing. We barely attacked.
“Against Barcelona, we knew what we had to do and we did it. We had to change our football because we were facing the best team in the world, so we could only sit deep and make the most of any counter attacking opportunities, and that got us through to the final.
“Tonight we failed to attack. We only did so in the last 10 minutes, after conceding the goal, and we should have shown greater attacking intent.
“Playing at home helped them take the initiative as well. They played in three quarters of the pitch for long periods. They had a plan and were better than us in most departments. But we had luck on our side,” he added.
Juan Mata, who joined Chelsea from Spanish side Valencia in August last year, said he and his team-mates always believed in themselves.
“This is an unforgettable night,” Mata said. “For me, it’s my first Champions League, and the first one for Chelsea. To win after having to play extra-time and penalties is just fantastic. To never give up is one of our best assets; even when we were losing with two minutes to go, it would have been easy for us to just give up at that moment but we didn’t.
“We were lucky but destiny was with us,” he added,
