Holders Chelsea crash out despite huge win

Celtic, Barcelona move into last-16 but Londoners exit.


Afp December 06, 2012

PARIS: 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 – 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, becoming the first Scottish side to garner 10 points from the group stage.

The result gave Chelsea’s interim coach Rafael Benitez his first win in four games but now the team’s only hope of securing silverware in Europe for a second successive season now lies in the Europa League.

“The other game was out of our hands, so we couldn’t do anything about it,” said Benitez. “I said before that we just had to do our job. As a manager, you have to be really pleased with the performance of your team. People ask about the Europa League. Every competition is important for us. We will try to challenge and win where we can.”

Late goal saves Celtic

Meanwhile, Celtic looked to be heading into the Europa League until Kris Commons slotted home a penalty 10 minutes from time to restore Celtic’s one-goal advantage.

“I’m very proud of the players - they’ve performed a miracle,” said Celtic manager Neil Lennon, who was leading the Hoops for the first time in the competition. “No one gave us a prayer coming into this group and we have qualified and deservedly so. I felt in the second half we had control of the game and deserved to win.”

Meanwhile, Benfica held Barcelona in a goalless draw after injured Lionel Messi was carried off the field, but it was the latter who qualified for the last-16.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2012.

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