Willian took his personal tally to seven against Porto and the Brazilian is still followed by own goals in the Chelsea scoring charts, as Ivan Marcano put through his own net.
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They lost 2-0 to Lyon but did finish third in the group and will drop into the Europa League.
When it comes to Monday’s draw, Mourinho expects Chelsea to be considered as the weakest top seed.
He said: “It was a hard game”.
He’s the fourth player to score a hat-trick for them in the Champions League (after Thierry Henry, Nicklas Bendtner and Danny Welbeck).
“Every team finishing second want to get us, they want to get Zenit [St Petersburg]”.
The win may have also saved Blues manager Jose Mourinho’s job.
Costa’s intelligent run allowed Hazard to run into space and play a good ball into Oscar, who in turn played a clever one-two with compatriot Willian, but his shot was taken agonisingly wide of goal thanks to a deflection.
“To win the Champions League, it’s obvious that a team who are struggling as much as we are is not a candidate to win”, said Mourinho. “But when we won at Porto in 2004 we were not candidates”.
“When we were a candidate we lost two semi-finals with Real Madrid, we lost two semi-finals with Chelsea”. Any joy that Porto did have came down the wings, with Brahimi and the always exciting Tecatito Corona flashing their skills, but overall, it was as comfortable for Chelsea as we’ve seen all season, and perhaps all calendar year.
Chelsea’s only triumph in the Champions League, in 2012, came under former manager Roberto di Matteo, when the London side were having a poor domestic season.
Chelsea join Arsenal and Manchester City in going through.
A Costa goal was perhaps the only thing missing from a satisfying night for Mourinho’s men.
“In the Champions League it is very important to go through to the next stage with the best teams in Europe”, Mourinho added.
The attacking intent required to steady nerves was evident early on in the second half. Chelsea’s leading scorer not named Own Goal already failed to impress with a shot from a similar position just moments prior, firing straight at Casillas, but this time he made no mistake.
Hazard received from Costa near the left touchline before surging across the edge of the penalty area and feeding the onrushing Willian to blast low into the bottom right hand side of the goal.
Blues owner Roman Abramovich applauded in his seat opposite in Stamford Bridge’s West Stand, sharing in high fives with those around him. Fist clenched in relief, the Russian billionaire smiled broadly as he celebrated in an executive box.
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Without the goal-line technology available in the Premier League, it was up to the official to adjudge whether the ball had crossed the line, and he got the decision spot on to settle early Chelsea nerves.
