Hazard was Fantastic against Maribor

Thegoalmac can reveal that Jose Mourinho leapt to the defence of Eden Hazard following his penalty miss in Chelsea's 1-1 Champions League draw with Maribor, describing the Belgian's overall performance as "fantastic".

 Mourinho refused to criticise his star man, telling Sky Sports: "When players play so well like Hazard did, he was fantastic and by far the best player of my team.

"Players like this can miss a penalty and still be the best in my team. We paid the price of not a good first half and their goalkeeper was fantastic.

"In the first half we didn't play well. I was not happy with the team or the performance.

"I changed at half-time with the conviction that team was going to improve. I was proved right, but they scored, their belief was higher and our players starting feeling the pressure."