Controversial Portuguese football coach Jose Mourinho enjoyed a triumphant return to Stamford Bridge in London on Tuesday with Italian Serie A leaders Inter Milan, who secured a 1-0 win at his former club Chelsea and entered the Champions League quarter-finals.
Samuel Eto'o hit a 78th minute winner for Inter, who had fallen at the first knockout stage for the last three seasons. The Italian side went through 3-1 on aggregate.
"We were the best team by far," Mourinho, who left the London club nearly three years ago, told Sky Sports. "To win here was almost a perfect performance not just by the team but by the individual players.
"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 Dutch playmaker Wesley Sneijder sent Eto'o free and the Cameroonian striker scored with aplomb, beating stand-in goalkeeper Ross Turnbull.
Inter now fly the flag for Serie A as the only Italian team into the last eight.
"I think we dominated the game and there was no danger for us," Sneijder, the man of the match, later said. "When we were attacking, we created the chances and the goal finally came and we should have got two or three."
Chelsea, who had reached the semi-finals in five of the last six seasons and last lost a home Champions League game four years ago, were desperately short of invention and barely troubled goalkeeper Julio Cesar as Mourinho enjoyed another night to remember at Stamford Bridge.
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 of starting 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 grip on the game.
When Chelsea did start piling on the pressure, 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 that it was goalless at half-time.
Inter actually had the best chance of the half when Eto'o, seemingly surprised that a deep cross reached him after another mistimed John Terry leap, sent a stooping header wide from 5 metres out after 34 minutes.
Inter began to pile on the pressure midway through the second half and a clever backheel by Sneijder sent Pandev through, but a terrific covering tackle by Yuri Zhirkov saved the day.
Four minutes later, Milito sprang 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 in the Inter penalty area.
"Inter played very well, we could have played better," a disappointed Carlo Ancelotti, the Chelsea coach, said. "Now we have to stay focused on the other competitions. 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."
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