CSKA Moscow's Brazilian coach Zico has rapped Chelsea over their sacking of Luiz Felipe Scolari.

He said: "I am a good friend of Scolari and I felt sad and upset after knowing he had been dismissed. He is a really high-class coach who has won the World Cup.

"His team are still in contention in the Champions League and are in fourth place in the Premier League so nothing has been lost.

"I give all my support to him and I am really sad because he didn't deserve to be dismissed.

"Yes, he lost some important games but he hasn't gone out of any major tournaments. He still had the chance in every tournament to win or turn things around.

"But then for Brazilian coaches it is very difficult because people think they will quickly fix any team, make them win all the games.

"Unfortunately, in general Brazilian coaches don't seem to have enough time to work with the teams they are in charge of to start showing good results.

"They have a lot of difficulty working in European teams because people don't give them enough time to put their work into practice."

Zico added: "A reasonable time for Scolari would have been to finish this season.

"Then people could decide if he had been a success or had not produced the right results."