Jose Mourinho claimed Chelsea were back “among the best eight clubs in the world” after last season’s Europa League winners eased beyond Galatasaray to ensure there will be at least one English team participating in a Champions League quarter-final this season.

The Portuguese  praised his players for outclassing their Turkish opposition to force passage into the next round. Mourinho has never lost a quarter-final tie in the Champions League and will await Friday’s draw for the last eight in Nyon with relish after beating Galatasaray 2-0 on the night and 3-1 on aggregate.

Jose Mourinho

“We are there [in the last eight] but it’s different from last season because, then, that was the Europa League and at a different level,” he said. “To come from the Europa League to the quarter-finals of the Champions League is important for the club, important for the players. We are a Champions League club and now we are among the best eight, the best clubs in the world, and we are there. The players deserve to be there.

“All the big teams are there. All the big candidates to win the competition are there. And we would welcome any one of them. It would be very good for our evolution as a team and very important for us to play one of the best. We wait for the draw. It doesn’t matter who. They are all welcome.”  The manager suggested he had been unaware of his own record in the last eight of Europe’s elite competition.

“Why should other teams fear [Chelsea]? I’ve never lost in a quarter-final? I’ve never thought about it.”

Mourinho, who had watched from afar as the London club failed to make it out of the group stage in the Champions League despite being holders last season, is expected to be charged with misconduct by the Football Association on Wednesday and fined around £10,000 after being sent to the stands for encroaching on the pitch in Saturday’s defeat at Aston Villa. It was the second time this season that he has been dismissed from his technical area after a misdemeanour in October’s victory over Cardiff, an offence which prompted a standard £8,000 fine.