Inter Milan knocks out Chelsea
Chelsea, the beaten finalist in 2008 and a losing semifinalist in 2009, crashed out of soccer’s 2010 European Champions League on Tuesday when it was defeated, 1-0, by Inter Milan in London.
The victory, achieved by a 3-1 aggregate score after Inter Milan had won the first leg, 2-1, in Italy, was bittersweet for Inter Coach Jose Mourinho. He had coached Chelsea to back-to-back English Premier League titles and this was his first competitive visit back to his old Stamford Bridge haunts since his 2007 dismissal.
As always, Mourinho had the perfect postgame quote.
“Today I was the enemy, and today the enemy won,” he said.
In Tuesday’s other round-of-16 match, CSKA Moscow caused a significant upset, beating Sevilla, 2-1, in Spain to hand the Spanish club only its second defeat in 47 European games stretching back more than half-a-century.
Tomas Necid gave the Russian side the lead six minutes before halftime, only to see his teammates concede a tying goal within two minutes when Diego Perotti, the understudy to Lionel Messi on Argentina’s national team, scored for Sevilla.
But a calamitous error by goalkeeper Andres Palop ruined Sevilla’s night. Palop tried to punch away a free kick by CSKA’s Japanese midfielder, Keisuke Honda, 10 minutes into the second half but instead redirected the ball into the roof of his own net.
The teams had tied, 1-1, in Moscow, and CSKA advanced to the last eight, 3-2 on aggregate. Sevilla Coach Manuel Jimenez took the blame.
“The result is disastrous and all we can do is say sorry to the fans,” he said. “We had a lot of hopes pinned on this game. I’m the one who is responsible.”
Chelsea, meanwhile, was its own worst enemy. Apart from a brief spell just before halftime, the Blues were off-color. They seldom troubled Inter Milan goalkeeper Julio Cesar and the 87th-minute expulsion of striker Didier Drogba — after German referee Wolfgang Stark ruled that he stamped on Inter midfielder Thiago Motta — typified their frustrating night.
“I think Inter deserved to win this game,” said Chelsea Coach Carlo Ancelotti. “We are sorry, but this is the reality. . . . We can play better.”
Chelsea needed only a 1-0 win to advance to the quarterfinals on the away-goals rule.
But it was Cameroon forward Samuel Eto’o who grabbed the game’s only goal, scoring in the 78th minute off one of a series of incisive passes from Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder.
The quarterfinal Champions League lineup will be completed Wednesday when defending champion Barcelona plays host to VfB Stuttgart and Bordeaux is at home against Olympiakos.
