Uwe Rösler praised Brentford’s players and supporters after their FA Cup with Budweiser defeat against Chelsea.
The Bees had come close to winning the Fourth Round tie at Griffin Park and it took a goal inside the last seven minutes to give Chelsea a replay.
The teams were all square again at Stamford Bridge until the 54th minute when Juan Mata – Chelsea’s best player – opened the scoring.
The Premier League side, currently FA Cup and UEFA Champions League holders, scored three more as Brentford chased the game to give the score line a slightly unjust look.
Uwe said his players did exceptionally well for long periods but opened up too early in an attempt to salvage the tie.
He hailed almost 6,000 Bees fans that filled The Shed End at Stamford Bridge and made their presence felt.
“We did exceptionally well for long periods of the game,” said Uwe, speaking to Bees Player after the match.
“For 60 minutes the shape worked really well.
“The players put a lot of effort in and also showed their class.
“It was an advert for the whole club.
“The supporters were magnificent for 90 minutes.
“It was fantastic to see the numbers but they also created a great atmosphere.
“After the first goal, their goals came too easily.
“We opened up too early.
“We have to learn to stay in games longer to get the equaliser in the last five to ten minutes.”
Uwe said his players could be proud of their efforts over the two games and had showed they could compete with the team currently sitting third in the country.
“My players can be very proud of the way they represented our colours,” he said.
“Our players can see they can compete collectively against top opposition.
“They can take confidence because they have performed to a very high level over two games.
“We know we have to learn.
“Today we learned that at 1-0 down we don’t lose our heads.”
Chelsea Interim Manager Rafael Benitez picked a full strength team for the match including key attacking players Juan Mata, Oscar and Demba Ba as well as England internationals John Terry, Gary Cahill, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard and first choice goalkeeper Petr Cech.
Chelsea had more of the ball in the first half but Brentford had chances and deserved to be level at the break.
The opening goal came when Juan Mata picked up a loose ball and scored from 25 yards.
Brentford tried to respond but conceded three late goals as they pushed forward.
“The first goal came from a long ball and Chelsea picked up the second ball,” said Uwe.
“That is not their normal game.
“They scored from outside the box.
“Against opposition like this you cannot give them any big mistakes.
“They will use it.
“That is what they did today.
“Rafa showed respect to my players with the team he picked.
“He saw what we can do in the first game; he put a strong physical team out there with their best player – Mata – on the field.
“I hoped he might rest him.
“The first goal was a split second of genius.”
Uwe said his plan was to bring on Harry Forrester after an hour with the game at 0-0 and try to win it.
Chelsea’s goal came just before then and Uwe said his players need to learn to stay in games rather than over-committing to attack and letting teams go clear of them.
“I couldn’t see the goal coming to be honest, even though we were getting more tired,” said the Brentford Manager.
“The plan was always to bring Harry Forrester on.
“When we do that we are more open.
“We are more open to win the game, which was the plan; we wanted to win the game.
“But we were more open defensively.
“The second goal came out of that sort of situation.
“We need to stay longer in the game.
“Being 1-0 down is no problem but the second goal kills the game.
“We needed to keep doing what we were doing for an hour after we conceded the goal.
“We played kamikaze football and you can’t do that against world class players.”
Uwe said he wanted to take his team to Stamford Bridge and show how good they were.
“After the first game, Chelsea blamed everything on the pitch,” he said.
“We wanted to prove that it was not only the pitch, they had faced a very good team.
“That is what we showed today.
“They were running out of ideas after 60 minutes.
“We worked hard and looked good on the counter.
“We should have had one or two more attempts on goal, especially on target and testing the keeper.
“Overall I am delighted with the effort and that we can now concentrate on the league.”
Brentford are currently seventh in npower League One and have 15 games left to play.
They are just four points off the top with games in hand on four of the teams above them.
Walsall come to Griffin Park next Saturday and Uwe said that is his focus.
“This is already out of my system,” he said.
“I said what I had to in the dressing room.
“We have a day off tomorrow.
“Then on Tuesday we will be back and preparing for Walsall.”
A full post-match video interview with Uwe Rösler is available here for Bees Player subscribers.