Fàbregas thrilled by 'brilliant' Chelsea

• Chelsea through with 5-0 win at Schalke that made José Mourinho "very pleased"
• Cesc Fàbregas speaks about "a brilliant performance"
• Didier Drogba delighted to get 50th European goal
• Schalke coach and players speak of "bitter night" but they are not yet out
• Next games: Chelsea v Sporting, Maribor v Schalke (10 December)

José Mourinho, Chelsea manager
I'm very pleased. It was a very impressive performance and the team are very confident. I said before the game that we were not interested in mathematics or just securing a point. We showed this from the first minute and had a chance right away. We were very compact, very solid in defence – I don't remember Thibaut Courtois making a save. We put in a fantastic performance.

Normally teams, when winning 3-0 or 4-0, they make defensive mistakes and allow the opposing team to score. Not today; the team was so solid. I think we should have scored even more. Obviously Schalke must be very sad with the result. The only comfort they can take is that they lost against a very good Chelsea team.

I don't remember Chelsea playing this way away from home. There were great victories for me, for Roberto [Di Matteo], with other managers, but not like this away from home. Very impressive. Schalke had their problems, but I think tonight any team playing us would have had a very difficult time.

We take it match by match, step after step. We have qualified, we are top of the group – that's a good situation for us. The players are enjoying their game and that's good. This team is as good if not better than other Chelsea teams. But right now, we have not won a single title. We have to transform the quality of our game into results and then winning something.

Cesc Fàbregas, Chelsea midfielder
I think we approached the game in a very consistent way. We were very aggressive from the beginning. I think we played great in the first five minutes. We scored two quick goals and that helped a lot in the end because we controlled the game as we wanted – whether quick or slow, we controlled the tempo, so I think it was a brilliant performance.

I certainly did enjoy it, but I think everyone did. We're playing good football, we're confident and I think we know what to do. We can defend, we can attack and the team seems really composed. That's what it's all about and hopefully we can keep playing this way.

I don't want to speak about [getting my hands on the UEFA Champions League trophy for the first time]. Let's take it game by game and see what happens at the end. The most important thing is that we did our job today, getting first place in the group, so we can relax in the last game. We'll still be competitive because we want to win it as well but obviously we can enjoy it knowing we are in the knockout round.

Drogba (left) reached a European milestone©Getty Images

Didier Drogba, Chelsea forward
We played very well. We are now top of the group and have qualified, so it was a very good night. I scored my 50th goal in Europe, as I just found out. That's a great milestone. I still remember my first goal with Marseille against Real Madrid [4-2 in September 2003]. Now, more than ten years later I scored number 50 – it's incredible!

André Schürrle, Chelsea forward
I think we did pretty well. We scored very early on and I think that unsettled Schalke. After that the fans were a bit on edge. We were a tad fortunate when they hit the bar but after that we were in control of the game. If we can keep up this kind of form we can go very far in the competition.

Roberto Di Matteo, Schalke coach
If you condede in minute two from a set piece, things are only going to get more difficult. We showed too much respect, did not pressure the ball enough and were not aggressive enough. They played very well today and clinically exploited us. We hit the bar when it was 1-0, so that might have changed the game. But if you go into the break with such a result, it is very disappointing. After the break we wanted to score and they hit us twice on the break.

We now have to win our last match and hope for Sporting to lose in England. We still have a chance, have to win our game and hope. I cannot say how Chelsea will perform on the final matchday. But even if they rotate a couple, they will still have a lot of quality on the pitch. My experience in England tells me there are no friendlies for them, they will surely try to win.

Tomorrow we have to analyse this, work on our mistakes and know we can still go through. Today was not what we wanted, while Chelsea probably put in one of their best performances this season.

Chelsea are very strong in midfield and we tried to overload the midfield to oust them. But if you concede two set-piece goals the problem is not in your tactics. You simply cannot allow so much room and space to such a team. I am a little bit surprised as well, because after our Bundesliga win on Saturday I had the feeling the team had confidence. I am very sorry for our performance, it was not a good evening for the players and staff and Schalke fans.

Dennis Aogo, Schalke defender
It was a bitter night for us, losing 5-0 in front of our fans – I think it was for everyone who came to the stadium tonight. We can only apologise for the performance and think ourselves lucky that we're still in with a chance of qualifying – I think that's the only good news of the night.

I think Chelsea will want to win their final group game at home, so the possibility is still there, but we need to focus on ourselves and make sure we win our game.

A lot of things happened tonight [which contributed to the final scoreline]. Obviously conceding an early goal threw us off track a bit. After that we didn't look composed. There were too many silly losses of possession and goals we never should have conceded. There was the own goal too – that can happen to anyone.

We tried to tighten up in the second half to limit the damage but again we made errors which let them. A lot of things went wrong which we need to process and then make sure we get three points in the Bundesliga at the weekend.

Felipe Santana, Schalke defender
We're all hugely disappointed. It's very frustrating to have put in a performance like that against Chelsea, but it happens in football and we'll have to learn our lessons from tonight. We have enough experience in our squad to draw the right conclusions.

We'll keep on fighting and perform better in future, but for now we need to analyse the mistakes we made and keep on working hard. I still believe we can get through. We have to win at all costs in Maribor now and hope that Sporting lose [to Chelsea].