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18th March, 2010
STAMFORD BRIDGE: Jose Mourinho enjoyed “perfect” revenge at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea crashed out of the Champions League in disgrace last night.
Didier Drogba was sent off in the dying minutes and John Terry launched a foul-mouthed attack on German fourth official Thorsten Kinhofer after another bitter European defeat.
But the night belonged to the ‘Special One’ as Inter Milan secured a remarkable victory with Samuel Eto’o’s 79th minute winner-and then Mourinho warned he is ready to return to haunt Chelsea again in the future.
Ex-Chelsea boss Mourinho, who was subdued in his celebrations and left the dug-out before the final whistle, said: “I celebrated a lot in the dressing room when the game was over. It was a big victory for my team.
“As I have said before, I am a professional, I love Chelsea, I love this stadium, I love these people but I am a professional. Who knows, in the future I may coach another English team and I will come here (again) as an opponent.
“I think everything was superior. We played the perfect match.
“I’m very happy because I won. I’m not very happy because they [Chelsea] lost. I’m very happy because my players are happy, my supporters are happy, my president is happy, and because I worked so much for this game.
“As a professional, that’s the best feeling you can have. I’m not happy because my ex-players or Roman lost, or that Chelsea supporters go home sad.
“I’m not happy about their unhappiness. But that’s life. Yesterday I exchanged a few SMS’ with John Terry and I told him that one of us would be sad today. That’s life.
“I think that the team that lost a semi-final with a goal that was not a goal, lost a semi-final on penalties, lost a final on penalties, lost a semi-final in a game that they should have won 3-0 with three penalties-this is the story of this club and the story of these players. This is history, one of frustration.
“Today Inter were much better than Chelsea and that brought frustration to the players, great professionals and great people. My people will always be my people. But I was the enemy. And the enemy won.”
Drogba, who is now set for a five game Euro ban having served a similar suspension in the past two seasons, got his red card for kicking out at Inter’s Thiago Motta while Terry lost his temper after being refused two penalty appeals.
Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti insisted he understood his players’ frustrations but admitted that he is now under even more pressure to win the Premier League after the club failed to reach the quarter finals for the first time in five years.
Ancelotti said: “I think Inter deserved to win this game. They are very solid. This is the reality. We have to stay focused now on the other competitions, but I think that we could have played better than this.
“Now we have two important competitions, the Premier League and FA Cup. We’ll have more pressure on the next few games, but we must be strong and have good control of our emotions. Maybe this defeat could be a very good motivation for the next few games.
“I think that the players normally were disappointed at the end of the game because we lost. Nothing special happened. I didn’t see this (Drogba red card) so I don’t know what happened in the Inter box.”
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