The clock above his goal said 10.30pm when Petr Cech was finally beaten. For the second time in this European campaign, it was Mohamed Salah who punished him, racing clear behind Branislav Ivanovic to clip a shot over the diving goalkeeper.

On the touchline, Jose Mourinho spun around, put the palms of his hands together and did a little mime which made it clear he thought his team had nodded off.

‘Everybody, everybody, the goal is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous,’ said Mourinho. ‘They were sleeping. If they weren’t sleeping, how could that goal go in?

‘When you are tired, you sleep. When you are tired, you think slow. It’s true. When you are tired you react late. We had situations to score but had bad control, no sharpness. When the team is tired, defensive and attacking mistakes can happen, and you concede goals that you never normally concede. But Basle deserved the bonus.’

The defeat was harsh on Cech who performed brilliantly. Without him, this would have been much worse. Basle were the better team in St Jakob-Park and the Swiss champions deserved their elaborate celebrations.

Chelsea were quite awful, they did not manage a shot on goal, but somehow fly home with the consolation that they have qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League thanks to Schalke’s failure to beat Steaua Bucharest.

Last year, they finished third and went out of the competition with 10 points. Twelve months on and they are guaranteed to go through with just nine points, by virtue of the fact Basle and Schalke face each other in the final game and one of them must drop points.

For Chelsea, a win at home to Steaua in the final game will win the group.

Sometimes it makes no sense. Arsenal are still not safe with 12 points. This time last year Chelsea were losing 3-0 to Juventus in Turin, a defeat which cost Roberto Di Matteo his job and sent the club spiralling into the Europa League. That defeat in Italy was the last time Chelsea failed to score in Europe, a run which froze in Switzerland’s sub-zero temperatures.

Mourinho’s players probably thought they had done enough to escape with a point, weathering heavy spells of pressure and were four minutes from time when Salah struck, seconds after the Chelsea manager had made a change, sending on Kevin de Bruyne for Willian.

As De Bruyne scurried across to the right wing, Salah sped onto a long pass out of defence and scored. The passionate home fans in St Jakob-Park erupted. Suddenly they too could detect the thrill of the knockout stages and lit their flares.

For Chelsea, emotions are mixed. The Europa League will not return and as such the first aim of the season has been achieved. But there remains plenty to occupy Mourinho’s mind.

According to UEFA’s match statistics, they had only one shot of any kind in 90 minutes, compared with 15 by the home team.

To make matters worse, Samuel Eto’o was carried off injured in the first half with a muscle injury. ‘We’ll have to wait for the scans,’ said Mourinho. ‘Clearly I’ve got signs of fatigue and players who have trouble playing two matches in three days. We paid the price today of the international week.

‘Maybe I should have made more changes, but when the team’s played so well, you want to give them more confidence, you want them to keep that going. But I could see many signs of fatigue.

‘I don’t punish players when I know the reason for their performance but to use the squad and make changes when we have so many consecutive matches.’

Despite his understanding, Mourinho appeared irritated by what he saw, a few days after 10 of the same players had produced an accomplished performance at West Ham. Perhaps that victory owed as much to the quality of the opposition.

At half-time, he was on his way to the dressing room before the whistle had gone and, as he watched from the touchline, more than once he threw his arms down in exasperation as his players failed to value possession.

They made simple passing errors, which stopped them relieving pressure on their own goal and could not get Oscar on to the ball as often as they would have liked. They were better in the second half and more threatening with Eden Hazard on, but still did not trouble Basle goalkeeper Yann Sommer.

The same could not be said for Cech, who made his first save within seconds of the kick-off, low at his near post from an in-swinging free-kick whipped low through a crowd of legs by Taulant Xhaka.

He pushed a low shot aside from Fabian Frei, tipped another over from Salah and John Mikel Obi hooked clear from under his own crossbar after Ivan Ivanov headed a corner towards goal.

Cech’s best save of this opening spell of Basle pressure, a reaction save to deny Salah with a strong left hand to claw the ball over.

It was a more even second half but Basle summon a spirited finish. Serey Die volleyed narrowly wide before Salah caught Chelsea napping.

—Daily Mail