Jose Mourinho says Chelsea must win Champions League game in Bucharest

Jose Mourinho will give Juan Mata a start in tomorrow's Champions League clash at Steaua Bucharest, a game the Chelsea boss insists his team must win.

Having lost 2-1 at home to Basel in the first group match, Mourinho conceded Chelsea could not afford to drop three more points in the Romanian capital.

"Tuesday is the game that we cannot lose," he said. "Even a draw, probably, is not a good result for us so now we have to prepare ourselves.

"We have to get 12 points to be out of any danger so if we lose there we still have four matches to play and we will have to win them all. We don't want to put ourselves under pressure."

Mata has started just three of the nine games in Mourinho's second spell in charge of Chelsea.

The Spain midfielder was so influential coming off the bench in the 1-1 Premier League draw at Chelsea's London rivals Tottenham on Saturday that Mourinho decided he now deserved to be rewarded.

"This is the way players have to say 'I want to play'," Mourinho explained.

"'Blah, blah, blah' is not good, conversations with the media is not good, the agent's blah, blah, blah is not good; good is this - the effort he made against Swindon and the way he changed the team in the second half [against Tottenham].

"And because of that I am a very happy manager who says 70 hours in advance he plays against Steaua Bucharest. He won that by himself."

At White Hart Lane, Chelsea had been trailing to a Gylfi Sigurdsson goal until John Terry headed home Mata's free kick in the 65th minute.

Chelsea were on top when Fernando Torres was sent off in the 81st minute for a second bookable offence.

Both of the Spain striker's yellow cards had been the result of clashes with Jan Vertonghen, Tottenham's Belgium international defender, yet there appeared to be minimal contact second time around.

Mourinho was convinced Vertonghen was guilty of play-acting and insisted he shouldn't have been on the pitch anyway as he had escaped punishment for a foul in his previous match, a cup tie with Aston Villa, that had seen an opponent's shorts brought down in the penalty area.

"He is a fantastic player but he is a special guy because three days ago he left the Aston Villa striker naked and it was not a penalty or a red card," Mourinho said.

"Vertonghen should not have played this game, he should have been suspended."