Champions League Results: Chelsea and Sevilla crash out

Champions League / Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco / 16 March 2010 / 2 Comments

Javier Zanetti celebrates as Inter Milan book their place in the quarter-finals

The "Special One" Jose Mourinho gets revenge on the club that sacked him as Inter Milan beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge to knock out Carlo Ancelotti's team.

Another big European night ended in familiar disappointment for Chelsea fans after Inter Milan were matched at odds of [22.0] on Betfair to beat Carlo Ancelotti's side 1-0 and progress to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. After last year's controversial exit to Barcelona in the semi-finals and their penalty shoot-out defeat in the final the year before, Chelsea look destined to not winning Europe's blue-riband competition.

Curiously, for a third time running Chelsea's failure will coincide with a suspension for Didier Drogba. He was sent off in the final two years ago, was suspended after his post-match antics in the defeat to Barcelona last year and was dismissed once more tonight, this time for an off-the-ball stamp on Inter midfielder Thiago Motta. A sending off in the match was matched at odds of [4.9]

Chelsea went into this match as [1.62] favourites to win in 90 minutes whilst the draw traded at odds of [1.77] before Samuel Eto's 78th minute winner; the Cameroon star was matched as high as [14.0] to open the scoring with Inter backed at [7.2] just before his goal.

Chelsea's shock exit has predictably shaken up the winner market on Betfair. Chelsea were strongly fancied to go far this year and traded at just [4.5] to win the competition for the first time in their history. Inter Milan on the other hand, who were backed as high as [50].0 to lift the trophy whilst struggling to get out of the group stages are now the third-favourites at [5.7] with only Barcelona ([3.4]) and Man Utd ([4.8]) shorter.

Surprising as Chelsea's exit was, a far bigger upset was taking place in Sevilla. Having secured a 1-1 away draw at CSKA Moscow, it looked a pretty straightforward task for the La Liga side but a 2-1 win for the Russian outfit saw them progress. The away win was matched at [8.2] with the correct 1-2 scoreline backed at [38.0]. The Russians were also matched at a high of [5.8] to qualify.

Betfair traders who backed them as high as [1000.0] to win this competition will have plenty of chances to secure a profit with their price now at the 40.0 mark and that may prove to be the best option. Only Olympiacos ([260.0]) and Stuttgart ([150.0]) who have huge tasks head of them in their second legs tomorrow night are bigger prices to go on and win the competition, which suggests the Betfair market thinks this as far as they're going this year.

Comments (2)

1. Towzer | 17 March 2010

   Chelsea were outplayed plain and simple tonite at home
   They seemed to be chasing the ball all night
   Frank Lampard was an absolute no show as well as the whole Chelsea midfield
   Malouda should come over and play for Toronto FC as he is horrible
   Everytime he gets the ball he runs into traffic and loses control
   The IM defence were grabbing Chelsea players and the ref never called anything
   Drogba was getting frustrated
   IM is a better technical side but even they wont win it this year
   Barcelona all the way ...........
   

2. Lesego | 17 March 2010

   Alex Ferguson once said Mourinho would return to England.I think he was actually saying he's the right man for United.The special one is a good coach and Chelsea made a mistake of firing him without valid points.