AS.com

Juan Mata said today that Roberto Di Matteo "will always be remembered" at Chelsea. The Italian was dismissed this morning after a 3-0 defeat in Turin, which saw the club's chances of progressing in the Champions League significantly weakened.

Mata noted that Di Matteo "was a Blue legend as a player and, with him as manager, we managed to win the Champions League for the first time. He'll always be remembered", added the Spaniard in a message on his Facebook page. He was the first Chelsea player to speak after the news.

"I want to thank his for all this time and wish him a lot of luck for the future", Mata went on.

After the defeat against Juventus, a win in their last group stage match against Nordsjaelland won't be enough to see Chelsea through to the knockout stage of the Champions Legaue; they'll be relying on the result of the group's other match to go their way.

The reigning champions in the competition will go out if Juventus and Shakhtar Donetsk draw, and will only progress to the last sixteen if they get three points at Stamford Bridge and the Italians lose in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the West London club are four points behind leaders Manchester City in the Premier League, two weeks after having let go of the top spot.