JOIN USMourinho's Inter send Chelsea crashing
Samuel Eto'o hit a 78th minute winner for Inter, who had fallen at the first knockout stage for the last three seasons. The Serie A side went through 3-1 on aggregate. "We were the best team by far. To win here was almost a perfect performance not just by the team but by the individual players," Mourinho, who left the London club nearly three years ago, told Sky Sports.
"I celebrated a lot in the dressing room because it was a big victory for my team. I love Chelsea, I love this stadium and I love these people. But I'm a professional and who knows I could coach another English team and come here again."
Inter had missed the three best chances of the match before Wesley Sneijder sent Eto'o free and the Cameroon striker scored with aplomb as Inter fly the flag for Serie A as the only Italian team into the last eight. Chelsea, who had reached the semifinals in five of the last six years and last lost a home Champions League game four years ago, were desperately short of invention and barely troubled goalkeeper Julio Cesar.
Inter opted against trying to sit back and defend their first-leg lead and produced an energetic display in a first half that featured more appealing, complaining and theatrical over-reacting - from both sides - than constructive football. Mourinho's tactic to start with three strikers - Eto'o, Diego Milito and Goran Pandev - seemed to catch Chelsea out and it took the Londoners a long time to get a hold on the game.
However, solid Inter defending, with centre backs Lucio and Walter Samuel in dominant form, and a sharp block by Cesar to keep out a Nicolas Anelka flick ensured a goalless first half. Inter began to pile on the pressure midway through the second half and a clever backheel by Sneijder sent Pandev through but was thwarted by a terrific covering tackle by Yuri Zhirkov.
Four minutes later Milito sprung the offside trap but shot wide with just stand-in keeper Ross Turnbull to beat while Thiago Motta headed over the bar from a free kick.
Chelsea were showing nothing at the other end and it was no real surprise when the impressive Sneijder looped a ball over the home defence and Eto'o, who had not scored in eight games since returning from the African Nations Cup, advanced on Turnbull and drove the ball confidently past him.
Turnbull did well to deny Eto'o again in injury time but by then it was all over for Chelsea, who had been reduced to 10 men by a late red card for Didier Drogba after a clash with Motta. "Inter played very well, we could have played better, now we have to stay focused on the other competitions," said disappointed Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti. "It's fair to say we were never fully in control, they put us under a lot of pressure, they controlled the pace of the game."
CSKA through
CSKA Moscow upset Sevilla 2-1 to send the Russian team into the quarterfinals for the first time in 17 years. A well-struck Keisuke Honda freekick ended Sevilla's hopes of making their quarterfinal debut and secured victory for the well-organised Muscovites to put them into the last eight for the first time since 1992-93.
After a 1-1 draw in Moscow last month, goals from CSKA's Tomas Necid and Sevilla's Diego Perotti had the sides tied at 2-2 on aggregate at the break before Honda's 55th-minute strike flew into the top corner off Sevilla goalkeeper Andres Palop.
Six minutes before the break, a mistake by Serbian defender Ivica Dragutinovic let in Necid, who rifled a low shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area.
Sevilla were level within two minutes. A long Palop punt bounced through to Navas and he crossed for Perotti to poke the ball past Akinfeyev.
Honda's winner came from a long-range free kick which Palop failed to deal with as the ball ricocheted into the top corner off the keeper's fists.