Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho believes that his side were in control against Liverpool in Tuesday's League Cup semi-final first leg, despite the Reds having six times as many shots on target.
The Blues took an early lead through Eden Hazard's penalty but were pegged back in the second period by a fine solo goal from Raheem Sterling and the west Londoners were fortunate to escape with a 1-1 draw as Steven Gerrard hit the post and Thibaut Courtois made a number of fantastic saves.
While Mourinho conceded that Liverpool's play merited a draw, he was adamant that his side could have put the tie to bed had they been more clinical and efficient themselves.
"I think it was a big game, a really big game – and for the [League] Cup that's really fantastic," the Portuguese told Sky Sports.
"We played at the top of our potential, Liverpool did the same; it was a proper semi-final and a fair result. I don't think Liverpool deserved to lose this game because I think they performed really well but we were in control.
"Maybe with a little bit more quality in our passing we could find spaces and could score more goals because the way they played, with the three defenders, we have a lot of space to counterattack and we were not very efficient in our transition when we recovered the ball.
"But I think it was a big game: intensity, emotion, a great semi-final."
On the suggestion that Liverpool had more, and better, chances, Mourinho continued: "That is very easy to say and feel because I really don't remember saves from [Simon] Mignolet and Thibaut [Courtois] had a couple of important saves and Steven Gerrard hit the post.
"But we had what I call lots of half-chances, which is lots of space to counterattack, their team completely open with the three defenders in the back for the whole bit, we recovered lots of balls and our passing was not the best. With a little bit more quality of passing we would have scored more goals."
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