Russian oil billionaire Roman Abramovich suffered two rare defeats on the football pitch on Tuesday as reigning champions FC Porto downed his Chelsea side 2-1 to ensure they avoided the ignominy of becoming the first titleholders to exit in the first round.
Benni McCarthy’s late goal for Porto also denied the Russian a second interest in the knockout phase as — despite the club his company sponsors, CSKA Moscow, grabbing a superb 3-1 away victory over Paris Saint Germain — the Portuguese side progressed to the last 16, finishing a point ahead of them in group H.
For Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, it must have been a bittersweet defeat, having guided Porto to last season’s Champions League title, but at least the London club were already through as group winners.
However, for Claudio Ranieri, his predecessor in the English side’s hot seat, there was no joy as Valencia dropped down to the Uefa Cup after a 2-0 home defeat by Werder Bremen that could spell the end for the coach who became known as the ”Tinkerman” for his rotation of the Chelsea starting line-up.
Valencia may pay a higher price as the match was marred by a last-minute brawl that referee Anders Frisk struggled to control, and he could be forgiven for wishing this season’s competition was over after being hit on the head with an object during the AS Roma and Dynamo Kiev match.
There was no problem for another London club as a youth-filled Arsenal took an early lead against Norwegian champions Rosenborg and romped to a 5-1 win in group E to ensure there was no early exit from the lucrative competition.
Their conclusive win meant Panathinaikos could only scream in frustration as a Markus Munch double propelled them to a 4-1 trouncing of the already-qualified Dutch side PSV Eindhoven, but finished a point behind the Gunners.
Nigerian strikers were to the fore in two of the other matches as a double by Julius Agahowa for Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk gave them a surprising 2-0 victory over group F winners Barcelona.
Obafemi Martins also scored twice as Inter Milan breezed to a 3-0 victory over pointless Anderlecht in group G.
Shakhtar’s victory ensured they took third spot in group F and a Uefa Cup spot, leaving Scottish champions Celtic out in the cold despite a 0-0 draw with AC Milan.
Porto came from behind to beat Chelsea, leaving the Portuguese side’s coach, Victor Fernandez, a relieved and happy man.
”Relieved? Yes, of course. We deserved this victory. Little by little, gaps opened up and we showed in this match we have the willingness to win, even if it wasn’t easy.”
Mourinho said it was logical that Porto had progressed.
”They were the second-best side in the group and I would have been surprised if they hadn’t gone through. Yes, I congratulate them, though personally I am not happy as I never like to lose matches,” he said.
However, he played down the defeat with a view to Sunday’s top-of-the-table Premiership clash with Arsenal.
”This was not a match to prepare for the Arsenal game on Sunday … if it had been, I would have played my best side,” he said rather patronisingly.
CSKA put up one of the outstanding performances of the night.
Down to 10-men and drawing 1-1, they overpowered an admittedly poor PSG side with Sergei Semak leading from the front as captain, scoring a hat-trick.
”I’m delighted with this win, but just a bit disappointed we didn’t do enough to make the last 16,” said CSKA coach Valeriy Gazzaev.
PSG handler Vahid Halilhodzic could have seen his hopes of staying on in the job disappear as they are already struggling to make an impact in the title race.
”I don’t know what was going through their [players’] heads tonight. I can’t put my disappointment into words,” said the Bosnian.
”We saw tonight what our level is … and that is dreadful. We deserved nothing better than fourth place.”
Two late goals by Bremen substitute Nelson Haedo Valdez was enough to deal a hammer blow to Ranieri and Valencia, but the violent scenes at the end — when Angulo brutally chopped down Valdez in the final minute — marred the encounter.
He was red-carded for his wretched tackle. Things then spiralled out of control with the Spaniard spitting in the direction of the Paraguayan, which led to several players getting involved.
”Scenes such as that cannot be tolerated and the game had to come to an end,” said Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf.
Arsenal’s dismantling of Rosenborg was, for manager Arsene Wenger, two out of three goals achieved, having beaten Birmingham on Saturday — although the third, and perhaps the toughest, is the Chelsea clash to come on Sunday.
”We can’t say the job is done yet but in Europe the job is done. It would have been very bad preparation [for Chelsea] to have gone out tonight, and we knew it would be difficult if it took a while for us to score,” he said.
For Wenger, the job in Europe may be done but for Ranieri and Halilhodzic it could well be their jobs are done at Valencia and PSG respectively, such is the price of failure in Europe. — Sapa-AFP