Scolari happy to have Terry on his team

Chelsea FC manager Luiz Felipe Scolari was not surprised that John Terry headed a late goal to secure victory against AS Roma because in his previous job he used to warn his Portugal players of the England defender's scoring threat. Roma coach Luciano Spalletti, taking positives from defeat, agreed that Terry is "excellent from those situations".

Luiz Felipe Scolari, Chelsea manager
It's very good for us because it's three more points. We have only one more home game so this was a very important match. Roma played very well – as I said yesterday, they try to play beautiful football every time. Win or lose, they try to play. It was a game where it's difficult to say if we were the best or they were – it's one goal, from a corner, which they could have scored but we did. It was a beautiful game, it was only one goal but the players tried to play good football, passing the ball and not just shooting from anywhere. I expected this yesterday and I expect the next game in Rome to be the same.

When I was the coach of Portugal and we played against England I told my players a lot that Terry was the most dangerous player from corners. He always goes for the ball in the area. I'm happy he got the goal but I would have been the same whoever scored. Now Roma need to pressure us and try to win more than they did today, so maybe we will have more space to play our game over there. That's important because we have seven points and, although the group is not decided, we're in good condition for the second game.

Luciano Spalletti, Roma coach
Our chances are pretty much the same although Chelsea are a little bit ahead. They have not qualified yet. We have got three games left and our chances are the same as they were before. We showed great attitude and spirit. We allowed ourselves to get caught out a little by the Chelsea midfield but tonight set the tone for what we need to do over the next few weeks. John Terry is excellent in those situations and he took his goal very well. The only time Chelsea were going to score was from a set-piece. I'm sad because the players did a great job and gave their very all. We have to accept the result but I think this is the path we have to follow.

Considering the way we played tonight I don't see why we cannot earn a good result in Rome against them because we will have a few players back from injuries. I'm very happy because [Francesco] Totti played for 90 minutes, He was a bit tired in the end but he fought hard and had a great game. [Alberto] Aquilani felt pain behind his thigh. He will have to undergo tests. We are unlucky with injuries at the moment. However, I'm very pleased with the approach of my players tonight. Now we want to build on this good performance and put an end to our bad spell once and for all.