Chelsea defender Ashley Cole hailed his team's self-belief after the 10-man Blues reached the UEFA Champions League final against all the odds.
Defender delighted to see side reach the final
Chelsea defender Ashley Cole hailed his team's self-belief after the 10-man Blues reached the UEFA Champions League final against all the odds.
Roberto Di Matteo's side earned a dramatic 2-2 draw at Camp Nou, despite the first-half sending off of captain John Terry, to progress 3-2 on aggregate.
Terry was sent off for inexplicably kneeing Alexis Sanchez in the back, but goals from Ramires and Fernando Torres cancelled out efforts from Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta to send Chelsea into next month's final.
Chelsea were forced to defend with a makeshift back four after losing Gary Cahill to injury early on and then the dismissal of Terry and Cole hailed his side's resilence.
"When you lose quality centre-halves like that against a great team, it's going to be hard," Cole told
Sky Sports 2HD.
Believed
"But we all believed. Not many people did but we did as a group of players, and that's what happened.
"It's hard, but we defended well as a team, got a bit lucky, and Petr (Cech) made some good saves.
"Three to four months ago no one thought we had a chance. We lost a few games in the Premier League but we always believed and knew we were good enough to be here. You can't beat that desire and fight that you saw out there today."
Defender Branislav Ivanovic, who will miss next month's final in Munich after a late yellow card, added: "It was a very difficult game. We deserved to qualify."
