Chelsea 0 - 1 Inter Milan

WELL, we did not really expect him to lose did we? The Special One has still got it.

Jose Mourinho came back to the ground which he turned into a fortress as Chelsea boss and blew the walls down.

A goalless draw would have been enough to send Inter through to the quarter-finals.

Mourinho had claimed in his Press conference that beating Chelsea was not the issue for him and the important thing was Inter making the quarter-finals.

But then he argued the Blues should never have axed him as boss - a point owner Roman Abramovich might be mulling over this morning as his Champions League dream lies in tatters for another season.

Whatever Mourinho's motivation for winning, he wanted it very badly indeed.

With a 2-1 lead from the first leg, Inter had the advantage.

Yet Chelsea were confident of turning the tie round, knowing a 1-0 victory would be enough.

They had to go with their third-choice goalkeeper, Ross Turnbull, because of injuries to Petr Cech and Hilario.

And they were, of course, without broken ankle victim Ashley Cole.

Judging by the speed with which Cole moved through the Press room before kick-off, though, it will not be long before he is back in action - which is good news for club and country.

It was fairly spikey early on, with Eto'o going down after a collision with John Obi Mikel's forearm and various altercations going on around the pitch.

Meanwhile, Michael Ballack was not far away with a 25-yard effort which went inches wide.

This Inter team was like Mourinho's Chelsea of old - strong in the challenge, giving little away and happy to mix it while getting up and down the field in numbers.

Mourinho was prowling his technical area manically, directing operations and complaining at Drogba roughing up his defenders.

The Inter chief was raging on 17 minutes when Goran Pandev was given offside as he broke away on goal.

He went looking for a screen to see a replay and, though he could not find one, his belief that Inter had been robbed seemed vindicated from the TV pictures.

It was scrappy stuff. But Drogba was proving a handful and, when the ball fell to him on the edge of the area, he released a screamer blocked by Brazilian defender Maicon.

Maicon is a brute of a man and was soon rampaging up the other end, with Yuri Zhirkov failing to get in a challenge.

As the cross came in, it cleared home skipper John Terry. That seemed to surprise Eto'o at the far post and his downward header bounced into the ground and over the bar.

It was a let-off for Chelsea, who were not looking comfortable.

Milito was crowded out on the edge of the six-yard box before he could get a shot in and Drogba was having to do an awful lot of work in his own box, heading away corners and getting in tackles.

Yet there was no better first-half tackle than Walter Samuel's, after Chelsea's man-of-the- moment Florent Malouda tricked his way past Lucio and looked set to score before the Argentinian's intervention.

It was all Chelsea now and Motta cleared Nicolas Anelka's effort off the line before the Blues had two penalty shouts.

First Lucio pulled back Branislav Ivanovic and then Samuel rugby-tackled Drogba to the ground and somehow got away with it - much to the bemusement of Carlo Ancelotti.

Eto'o could have finished it off for Inter but up to then was not having a good night.

When he got clear of the struggling Zhirkov, he seemed set to score.

Then, for no apparent reason, he hesitated and momentarily lost control, allowing Turnbull to smother.

The Inter bench was going mad. It was a great chance and they nearly paid double. Malouda went down the left and his shot almost sneaked under Julio Cesar by the near post.

There was some quality defending going on and Zhirkov redeemed himself to foil Pandev with a perfect last-ditch tackle.

Inter went close again, after Terry lost possession and Wesley Sneijder played in Milito, who snatched his left-foot effort wide. Then Motta put a header over the top from Sneijder's free-kick.

These were anxious moments for Chelsea and then suddenly, 11 minutes from time, it was all over.

Eto'o collected a fine ball from Sneijder, got away from Ivanovic and tucked his right-foot shot beyond Turnbull into the corner.

Drogba was then sent off and that completed a depressing night for the Londoners and their boss.