Chelsea boss Roberto di Matteo admits they were flat for their 2-1 Champions League win over Benfica.

Chelsea looked to be cruising through after Frank Lampard's first-half penalty was followed up by Maxi Pereira's 40th-minute dismissal for two bookable offences.

However, Benfica attacked after the break and forced a nervy ending when Javi Garcia nodded home five minutes from time.

Raul Meireles netted in stoppage time to secure a 2-1 win and set up a semi-final encounter with reigning champions Barcelona, much to Di Matteo's delight.

"As I said yesterday in the press conference, we expected a difficult game, a hard game, and that proved to be it exactly," he said.

"We probably made it a little bit more difficult for ourselves by not scoring a second goal, especially in that second half with all those chances. That kept them alive and [gave them] hope that they would score a goal and still be in it.

"They moved the ball around very nicely. We didn't quite keep possession enough as we'd have liked to with the extra man.

"I think the team wasn't as sparkling as we were hoping it would be. Maybe they were a bit tired, but we're pleased to have won the game and gone through. We deserved it over the two legs."