As Chelsea left Greece without an away goal, Avram Grant gave an honest, if untroubled verdict, on the night's Champions League work.

His players were frustrated in front of goal in a Karaiskakis Stadium that had resonated with support - but by shutting out Olympiacos as well, Chelsea can point to the best result for any away side in Tuesday night's European ties.

'The result is okay,' Grant said before departing the Greek capital. 'Of course we always want to win but a draw away is not a bad result, it is okay.

'On the performance, except for two chances, we didn't create a lot so it was disappointing. But it is not easy to play here. They have good supporters and Olympiacos are well organised.

'From the tactical side, they played very well, they didn't lose any game at home in Champions League this season, and they know how to play away.'

Grant was prepared to admit it was the least impressive display since he became Chelsea manager, adding:

'I think the ref was a little bit hard on us. It was not an aggressive or violent game and the players were not so happy with four yellow cards.

'When you draw away, the worse draw is 0-0 but you can always lose the game, even though we thought only to win the game. We knew Olympiacos would be tough because they beat teams like Lazio and Werder Bremen. 

Panagiotis Lemonis, the Olympiacos coach, agreed with Grant's view of the home side on the night.

'Our game plan was okay, we didn't leave Chelsea enough room to create many opportunities,' he said.

'We knew it would be extremely difficult to create opportunities and we are satisfied with the amount we did. The result leaves us with a certain degree of satisfaction and we will go forward with that.'

Lemonis claimed the result will not force him to change his approach for the second leg although he hopes to have Lomana LuaLua fit, an important player in his game plan he explained.

His opposite number, with for once few injury problems, chose to omit John Terry and Frank Lampard from his starting line-up, a move that inevitable led to Grant fielding questions after the game.

'I am very happy with the team selection but I feel in the next two months I will always be asked about players not playing, so I prefer to speak about players who are playing.

'I will not speak about all my calculations but in football I never gamble. When you have a big squad, you always have questions about who you didn't play. We played with a strong team today and with a strong bench and we will do it again in the future.'