Jose Mourinho: I liked it when Eden Hazard was kicked around

More than 83,000 fans crammed into Sydney's Olympic Stadium to watch as the A-League runners-up Sydney FC were denied a draw by a late disallowed goal and some fine shot-stopping from Petr Cech.

Given the overwhelming majority of Australian internationals are still based in Europe, Mourinho was impressed by the standard of the talent his team faced.

"Obviously there is a difference in terms of technical and tactical level of the players. Obviously we cannot find in Sydney FC or even Australia football players like Eden Hazard or Diego Costa," the Portuguese told reporters.

There was also no doubting Mourinho's admiration for one Sydney FC player, Chelsea fan and Socceroos midfielder Terry Antonis.

"The guy that kicked Hazard three times in 10 minutes impressed me, because I like that," he said.

"I like it because there are no friendlies, I don't like the word friendly, a match is a match. Of course some matches are more important than others, but a match is a match."

Mourinho was clearly impressed by the passion of the fans -- 10,000 turned out to watch training on Monday -- and although he ruled out a pre-season visit because of the distance, promised the club would not leave it so long between visits next time.

"It cannot be 40 years until the next time Chelsea comes," he said.