Chelsea 1-0 Benfica: Jose Mourinho's return ends in defeat as ANOTHER Blues star sees red in unconvincing Champions League victory

It was just after the hour mark with their team labouring a little that the Chelsea fans started to sing the name of their old manager Jose Mourinho. Standing on the touchline in a white shirt, blue trousers and brogues, the new coach of Benfica put a solitary hand up and waved.

It seems some love affairs never really die. They just hide themselves away for a while.

Mourinho can’t hurt Chelsea anymore of course. Not in the grand scheme of things. It was different during his spells at places like Manchester United, Tottenham, Inter and Real Madrid. At various points during that long period, it all grew a little bitter.

Now that his career is on the wane and he arrives on recognisable territory carrying underdog status, he can be shown the love and fondness that deep down he always craves.

Not that his team were outplayed or embarrassed here. Far from it. Benfica may have conceded a decisive own goal in the 19th minute – Richard Rios turning in a volleyed cross from Alejandro Garnacho – but they were competitive in the game and created opportunities of their own.

Indeed by the time a frantic finale arrived - with Mourinho booked for a rather mild show of touchline dissent and Chelsea substitute Joao Pedro sent off for two quick bookings - Benfica were on top and pushing hard. All the Portuguese team lacked at this late stage was a touch of penalty box composure or good fortune.

In the end they had neither and therefore lost narrowly and maybe a little unjustly. Whether that says more about Chelsea and their current inconsistencies than it does Benfica we may not know until Liverpool come here at the weekend.

At the start of a big few days for Mourinho – his team face another of his old clubs Porto at the weekend – he could not have looked more relaxed. In the hour and half before kick-off, there was barely a hand left unshaken. Joe Cole – once a player for him here of course – even got the bear hug treatment.

Not much seemed to have changed once the game started, though. It took Mourinho only two minutes to be spoken to by the fourth official for the first time. His crime was to stand outside of his technical area and with his feet right on the touchline as two players careered towards him. Mourinho was, in truth, fortunate not to be left on the seat of his undoubtedly expensive pants.

On the field, things went rather better for a while. Benfica were bright and troubled Chelsea whenever they got forward. Indeed in the eighth minute they almost scored as Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella gave up possession to Dodi Lukebakio who swapped passes with Georgiy Sudakov on the right and drove a low left foot shot against the foot of Robert Sanchez’s near post.

There were other half chances too as Sudakov had a low shot saved and then Rios connected weakly with a stabbed effort.

These chances all arrived on the counter. It was Chelsea who had most of the ball at this stage and the Premier League side were close to a goal themselves, as the dangerous Pedro Neto cut in from the right and drove across goal and wide. Then Garnacho had an opportunity at the far post only to move away from the ball to volley rather than propel himself forward to head. Bad decision.

The Chelsea winger did rather better soon after that moment, however. When Neto crossed deep from the left in the 19th minute, Garnacho peeled away to connect smartly across goal for Rios to crash the ball in to his own net.

Mourinho’s response was to rise from his dugout seat and encourage his players to lift their chins. They managed to do just that and remained in the game. Indeed Trevor Chalobah’s six yard line tackle on Vangelis Pavlidis was all that stood between Benfica and an equaliser.

Soon after Mourinho was been off on an amble down the touchline in a bid to quieten his team’s supporters as they barracked and threw paper cups at Enzo Fernandes. Mourinho used to move down English touchlines rather quicker than that. Proof that time catches up with everybody in the end.

His team were full of running at the start of the second half, though, and twice Benfica worked good positions to see the whites of Sanchez’s eyes. Both times a flag went up.

Chelsea were not in control of the game at all as it moved towards the hour mark and were in need of a second goal. At this stage, their manager Enzo Maresca made his first change as the Brazilian teenager Estevao replaced the wholly ineffective Facundo Buonanotte.

This was on the whole a pretty disjointed performance by a team that like to remind everyone of their World Champions status at every opportunity. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. Does anyone – including the manager – really have a clue what Chelsea’s first choice eleven is?

More changes arrived for both teams. It’s always the way these days and it certainly didn’t help the flow of the game. Chelsea were comfortable but not creative. In fact it was hard to think of a clear chance Maresca’s team made in the second half of a game they may be glad to have merely got out of the way.

Victory for Chelsea, then, even of Joao Pedro’s dismissal – the second booking coming for a raised foot - will have irked Maresca. It was Chelsea’s third in four games and was utterly unnecessary.

Mourinho himself looked rather dissatisfied at the end – when ever doesn’t he? - and maybe that told much of this story.