Jose: I'm Euro star

"At Porto we had to play a Yugoslavian team, a Spanish team, a French team, an English team - only a team with good tactical organisation and knowledge can be ready to face different atmospheres and different styles of play.

"Sometimes you have to play in the second match to defend a result, sometimes when you play in the second match you have to go and change the situation. It's a beautiful process."

Mourinho, whose team begin their campaign at home to Paris Saint-Germain tomorrow, is confident Chelsea can progress from a group also containing Porto and CSKA Moscow.

He added: "I'm glad that all of the Italian clubs - AC Milan, Juventus, Roma and Inter - were in the same seedings pot as Chelsea. I don't enjoy playing against Italians because it's very difficult. They are very organised from a tactical point of view, they play for a result, they are emotionally very strong and there's often a strong atmosphere when they play at home."

John Terry is also confident the Stamford Bridge side can make history.

The captain said: "We all believe we can do better than last year by going on to win the tournament. We had a great opportunity and just missed that little bit of luck we needed. But all the lads are raring to go again and we've got a great chance.

"We've got a manager who's won the tournament and a couple of players who've won it with him so with that experience we should do better.

"There's also the disappointment of the players left from last season, which will spur us on. Money doesn't come in to it and we'd all swap everything for trophies at the end of our career."

Chelsea will begin their European adventure unbeaten following Saturday's 0-0 draw at Aston Villa, but Terry feels they should have won the game. The visitors could have had a penalty when Didier Drogba appeared to be fouled by Ulises De La Cruz and Mourinho could face an FA charge for suggesting that Rob Styles would have given the spot-kick to Arsenal or Manchester United.

Terry said: "We're very disappointed with a point as it was one of our best performances of the season."