Avram Grant admitted that he is facing a nervous evening at Stamford Bridge in the second leg of Chelsea’s quarter-final on Tuesday after last night’s 2-1 defeat by Fenerbahçe.

The Chelsea first-team coach was at a loss to explain how his team had lost a match that they dominated for long periods after taking a thirteenth-minute lead, with second-half goals from Colin Kazim-Richards and Deivid inflicting their first European defeat since the second leg of their semi-final against Liverpool last season.

Chelsea’s frustration at losing a match they should have won was encapsulated by Frank Lampard, who threw down his shin-pads in anger as he stormed down the players’ tunnel after the final whistle in Istanbul.

“I don’t know what to say,” Grant said. “We played good football and deserved to be three or four up, then we go to sleep for one moment and we lose a goal. We talked about it at half-time. We should have had more goals, but this is football.

“Normally, this is not a bad result away because we scored, but it doesn’t feel like that. We deserved to win and I can’t believe it. It’s not the best result, but not a bad result.”

Grant insists that his team can progress to set up an all-English semi-final against Arsenal or Liverpool, with Chelsea taking confidence from the fact that they have not lost a home match to any opposition since a Champions League defeat by Barcelona two years ago.

“We can still win this game,” Grant said. “In Athens we didn’t play very good and drew 0-0 \ and here we played very well and lost 2-1. It will be nervous, but it’s part of life. We wanted to have the second game at home and we’re still in it. The most important thing is to go into the next round. We play at home and we need to win.

“Fenerbahçe will be happy because they are a very attacking team who can score at any time. But as long as we hold the ball, they can’t make any chances.”

Grant insisted that Lampard’s show of anger was owing to frustration at the defeat rather than his substitution. “Frank did very well today and it was not easy after he was sick and only trained two days,” the Israeli said. “He played more than 70 minutes and it was risky to allow him to play 90.”

Zico, the Fenerbahçe coach, claimed that Chelsea are favourites to qualify. “Having to play the second leg so quickly is a disadvantage,” he said. “The players need some rest to get their strength back. But when you have to step up to a higher level you must compete in this way. The league is very important for us, so I will play my full team on Saturday.

“I’m not thinking about \Moscow, just Stamford Bridge. We need to play with the same spirit in London. We must go step by step.”