Blues rise to the wrong occasion
CHELSEA made the wrong sort of history on Wednesday as they became the first holders to exit the Champions League at the group stage, despite winning their final group game.
Their 6-1 thumping of Danish minnows Nordsjaelland – their biggest Champions League win, having previously twice won 5-0 – proved pointless as Juventus won 1-0 and inflicted a rare home defeat on Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk.
Chelsea’s despair was in contrast to the joy in Glasgow as Celtic reached the last 16 with a 2-1 home win over Spartak Moscow and become the first Scottish side to garner 10 points from the group stage.
Benfica failed to match their result – if they had done they would have gone through on head-tohead meetings – drawing 0-0 away at tabletoppers Barcelona, who had a scare when Lionel Messi went off on a stretcher. However, fears of a long-term injury were allayed. He has a bruised left knee.
Galatasaray secured the 16th and last place as they came from behind to beat Braga 2-1 in Portugal, making Cluj’s stunning 1-0 defeat of Manchester United at Old Trafford academic because of a better head-to-head record with the Romanian side.
While United had already sealed top spot, it was not a memorable way for manager Alex Ferguson to celebrate being in charge of United for the 200th time in the Champions League.
Chelsea’s victory gave interim coach Rafael Benitez – who has received a less than warm reception by the Chelsea fans since he replaced Roberto di Matteo – his first win in four games at the Stamford Bridge helm.
“The other game was out of our hands, so we couldn’t do anything about it,” said Benitez.
Juventus progressed thanks to an own goal by Olexandr Kucher, although they also spurned several chances of their own and left assistant coach Angelo Alessio a happy man.
“We are really happy with this victory, to have reached the next round and to have finished top of our group,” he said. – Sapa-AFP