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Chelsea defender Ivanovic: Assists good for Torres confidence

Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic says they players are happy with Fernando Torres' contribution.

The £50million man has now scored just once in 29 matches for club and country after drawing a blank again in last night's Champions League opener against Bayer Leverkusen.

Torres at least managed to set up both goals in a 2-0 win and Ivanovic insisted the Spain star continued to enjoy the support of his team-mates.

"It's important for him to make assists or to score the goals because it's good for his confidence," he said.

"It's important to play like a team, not to look at individual statistics and this is a main case."

After his lay-off helped the marauding David Luiz break the deadlock with a brilliantly-worked opener, Torres unselfishly - or unconfidently depending on your point of view - squared for Juan Mata to tap home in stoppage-time last night.

Ivanovic was of the former opinion, saying: "It is a football pass and this is great, this is better than scoring.

"It's unusual because, as a striker, he was one against one with the keeper, he saw Mata, and...great."

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