Chelsea have been beaten by Basel tonight in the Champions League after a late goal from Mohamed Salah, but have progressed to the knockout stages after Schalke's goalless draw away to Steaua Bucuresti.
The hosts made a decent start, and twice broke down the left to test the Chelsea defence.
The Blues then needed Petr Cech to prevent the ball sneaking past him after Marco Streller had failed to connect with a free kick.
Chelsea struggled to get to grips with Basel's quick play in the opening 10 minutes, and Jose Mourinho's mood wasn't helped when Cech launched a goal kick out for a Basel throw.
Despite a brief break in the pattern of play, the Swiss side came back at Chelsea and Cech had to be alert to tip Fabian Frei's shot wide of the post. From the resulting corner, Jon Obi Mikel was forced to clear off the line as the hosts pushed for the opening goal.
Samuel Eto'o so nearly stole a lead for Chelsea, before Salah resumed the onslaught and forced Cech into a finger-tip save.
Cech then saved his side again after the defence failed to clear a cross and Salah had poked towards goal.
Chelsea were forced into a substitution just before half time when Eto'o overstretched for a ball when attempting a challenge. Fernando Torres came on in his place.
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The opening moments of the second half were much quieter than those of the first, although Mourinho did make a substitution, replacing Oscar with Eden Hazard.
That failed to produce an immediate response, but Chelsea were at least containing Basel's attacking players.
Hazard had a chance to test the goalkeeper after making space for himself 20 yards from goal, but instead decided to pass to Ramires and watched the ball roll past his teammate.
With 80 minutes on the clock, Chelsea had failed to register a single attempt on goal and they seemed content on holding on for a draw.
Basel, on the other hand, pushed for a winner and came close when Serey Die's volley was inches away from finding the net.
However, with only three minutes left of normal time, Branislav Ivanovic was caught out on the right-hand side and Salah ran through on goal and calmly found the corner of the net.
Gary Peters
