SPORT: Basel boss Murat Yakin was swelling with pride after his team secured another win over Chelsea and praised the performance of Mohamed Salah

 

Mohamed Salah struck late against the Blues to secure a 1-0 win at St Jakob-Park - Basel's second victory over the Londoners in this season's Champions League group phase - and Yakin could not fault the endeavour of his team or the vociferous support from the fans.

"To win twice against Chelsea is something historic. But we have now played four times against them and are therefore not awestruck," he told reporters after the match.

"I'm very happy for the team and for all who witnessed it in the stadium. But that Mourinho has had to congratulate me twice is already something beautiful.

"We fought for every blade of grass. In the second half we controlled play, it took several attempts but in the end it worked out.

"It would have been undeserved had we not won or even lost, which can happen against an efficient Chelsea. The supporters pushed us over the 90 minutes to the end - they wanted us to win just as much as we did."

Yakin went on to pay particular tribute to match-winner Salah for his late run and finish and stressed the Swiss champions were fully deserving of their "final" to come against Schalke on matchday six.

"We are glad that Salah is with us, he builds up a lot of attention when he is in top form. He's an attraction," added the former midfielder.

"The team deserved to reach a final against Schalke and now we've even overtaken them in the table, but it is of course very difficult in Gelsenkirchen. But it feels great that we're still in the race [for the next round]."

Basel's win moves them into second in Group E on eight points, one ahead of Schalke and one behind leaders Chelsea, who have qualified for the next round by virtue of the Bundesliga side's 0-0 draw with Steaua Bucharest.