Chelsea boss Rafa Benitez refused to criticise his players after a dismal Capital One Cup semifinal defeat to Swansea City.

Benitez's hopes of winning his first Chelsea trophy were hanging by a very thin thread tonight after the Blues put in a terrible performance to go down to a 2-0 home defeat in the first leg of their Capital One Cup semi-final.

Swansea had to work very little to achieve their victory. Two glaring errors from Branislav Ivanovic allowed Michu and Danny Graham to score, while the Chelsea team as a whole performed poorly.

Benitez said: "The team are doing well. You can lose a game and then analyse it, but if you play this game 10 times maybe you will win nine of them.

"I think the team were doing really well, had a lot of chances and could have scored two or three in the first half, but we made two mistakes and paid for them.

"I can see any player making mistakes and it's not an issue. It's about trying to do things afterwards, and Ivanovic tried to do his best. We carried on and tried to do the right things."