Rafa Benitez leaves welcome gift for Mourinho with Europa Cup

From Inter Milan to Interim, Rafa Benitez has walked a rocky path since losing his job at Liverpool three years ago. The long trudge back to credibility was finally worth it as the Europa League delivered Chelsea's caretaker manager back to his favourite kind of triumph.

Europe's second-tier Cup may be a touch off-Broadway, but it felt prime-time enough in Ajax's marvellous Amsterdam ArenA, with the illustrious Benfica in opposition, and Chelsea settled and proficient under Benitez's micro-management. Branislav Ivanovic's late, late goal was another European wonder.

At airports and ports there was even a muffled acknowledgement from Chelsea's fans that Benitez has spun order out of chaos, just in time, they hope, for Jose Mourinho to waltz back in: the bringer of "joy", as Petr Cech, the Chelsea goalkeeper, called him this week.

If Mourinho is Jupiter, what is Benitez? Mercury, the winged messenger, perhaps. And his big message has been that managing Chelsea permanently would have been well within his scope had Roman Abramovich not treated him like someone you would call out of Yellow Pages to solve a leak.

In a faintly bizarre first half, Chelsea sprung plenty of new ones as Benfica's forwards created countless chances only to waste them with a mixture of wild, fluffed and excessively artistic shooting. Their brilliant approach play was undermined by flailing inside the Chelsea box and by an insistence on curling shots with the outside of the boot when a straightforward drive might have found the net.

Chelsea watched this wastefulness and blocked and cleared as well as they could. But the policy of waiting for Benfica to blow themselves out was a risky one, especially with Fernando Torres initially quiet up front and Nemanja Matic - a Chelsea discard - outshining David Luiz in central midfield.

At least Frank Lampard gave Portugal's finest a lesson in striking the ball cleanly. His long-range drive was slapped away by Artur, the Benfica goalkeeper. Torres was next to instruct Benfica how to do it. On 59 minutes he barged away Luisao, the mighty Benfica centre-back, before working his way round Artur to put Chelsea in front.

Seven minutes later the Portuguese were level when Cesar Azpilicueta handled in the box and Oscar Cardozo hammered home the penalty.

Benitez was made for nights like these. He won the Uefa Cup with Valencia in 2004 and the Champions League with Liverpool a year later. European football plays to his tactical predisposition. The game in Europe is played with the head as much as the heart. In England, Benitez has never seemed entirely comfortable with the emotionalism of the Premier League.

The deal is nearly up. He leaves Stamford Bridge with his reputation restored and a strong squad for Mourinho, who already has the players purring. "If he returns to Chelsea he will be welcomed by everyone," Cech said, almost putting an apple on his desk. "It's not down to the players to choose the manager but we had great success with Jose and people here have great admiration and fondness for him. You always remember a manager who gave you the chance to play and win trophies. Those moments of joy when you work together and win together always stay with you."

The inference was that Benitez has performed well, in a John Major-ish way, but that Mourinho will re-light the squad's fire. Cech speaks of course for an older generation of players who have been at the heart of 11 major trophy wins in 10 years of Abramovich's ownership (in that time they prevailed in seven of nine Cup finals). The younger Chelsea players are less vocal on these issues. We can only assume they would join Cech in hanging out the bunting for Mourinho's return.

In their 68th game of the campaign Chelsea meanwhile chased the last of eight trophies available to them in 2012-13. Yes, eight, counting the European Super Cup and Club World Cup. They were aiming to become the first English club to complete the European treble of Cup Winners' cup (1971 and 1988), Champions League (2012) and Uefa Cup or its modern equivalent.

But Benitez's last drink in the saloon was a nervy occasion. Chelsea revived the Munich tactic of 12 months ago, absorbing pressure and hoping to strike on the counter through missiles from Lampard or the more subtle passing of Mata. The inventiveness of Benfica was pitted against the organisational power and occasional brilliance of Chelsea, for whom Benitez made no changes in the 90 minutes of regular time.

Few options shone from the bench. Victor Moses on the right, perhaps.

Instead Benitez stuck with the players who had turned his provisional government from standing joke with the Chelsea fans to a undeniable success. In the 88th minute Lampard let loose a thunderbolt which shook the Benfica crossbar. What a finish that would have been in a week when he appeared to have signed that elusive one-year extension to his contract.

Though the quality of Chelsea's performance was down on the extraordinary levels of Munich this time last year, there is never a shortage of drama when this team rise to big challenges. And in the last minute Ivanovic rose to meet a corner to the far-post and confer more European glory on his team and Benitez.

Mourinho will be Chelsea's fourth manager in 15 months. This was quite a welcome gift.