Chelsea interim boss Rafael Benitez is hopeful Fernando Torres' confidence won't be affected despite the Spaniard following the eventual winning goal against Steaua Bucharest with a late penalty miss at Stamford Bridge.

After Juan Mata and John Terry's goals either side half time, Torres' goal with 19 minutes left eventually sent The Blues through to the last eight.

The Spaniard, who had earlier netted just his third goal of 2013, was handed the opportunity to put the icing on the cake for Chelsea from a penalty in the closing minutes, but clipped the bar.

But Benitez has played down the significant of the miss, claiming Torres's earlier strike could be vital for the £50m striker.

Fernando Torres
Torres scored the eventual winner but later missed a late penalty.

"It was important for him [Torres], it was important for the team," Benitez said.

"We knew that he was working very hard and was training really well, scoring a lot of goals in training sessions so we knew he was close but hopefully it will be the first of a lot.

"He has confidence now so he can take the responsibility [to take the penalty] now and it was good.

"We are very pleased because he was taking the responsibility more than he missed the penalty so after he had more confidence and that is positive for him and positive for the future."

After Mata's 34<sup>th minute opener, Vlad Chiriches' threatened to send Chelsea out of a second European competition of the season, until captain Terry and Torres struck late as last season's Champions League winners staged a dramatic comeback.

Fellow English pair Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur, 32-time Portuguese champions Benfica and Italian giants Lazio are among the sides remaining in the competition, handing Chelsea further fixture congestion as the season enters the business end.

However, Benitez is unperturbed by the predicament, despite the proposition of playing eight games across 28 days in April.

"It was a great victory, against a good team so I think everybody on our side will be please because it was a great performance against a good team," Benitez added.

"We had confidence before the game and obviously we have more confidence after the game and to come back we showed character, commitment and quality and today was exactly the same so we added all these things together against a good team.

"Since I've been here we have been playing around nine games a month; we knew that could be difficult.

"But we are confident in the players we have and hopefully we can manage well and we can progress in all of them."