Chelsea became the first defending champions to crash out at the group stage of the Champions League, despite beating Nordsjaelland 6-1 last night. But Chelsea are heading to Thursday night football and the Europa League after Juventus beat Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0 to finish above Chelsea in the standings.
So despite the first win of the Benitez era, and two goals from Fernando Torres it was a costly night for Chelsea. Earlier this season Chelsea officials publicly celebrated the clubs first profit of the Roman Abramovich era. But with something in the vicinity of £30m in less revenue from the Champions League this year, Chelsea will be find it very difficult to not show another big loss for the season.
On top of that, Chelsea now face the prospect of playing Thursday and Sunday games, while trying to maintain a top four position in the league. That is a fixture list that other Premier League clubs have struggled with in the past.
When the Champions League draw was made back in August, nobody have Celtic any chance of getting out of their group. But in front of a passionate Celtic Park crowd, Celtic beat Spartak Moscow 2-1 on the night to advance along with Barcelona from their group.
Gary Hooper latched on to a poor pass to fire the Bhoys ahead, but they were pegged back when Kelvin Wilson headed into his own net. Then with less than 10 minutes to go in the match, Celtic won a penalty through Giorgios Samaras and Kris Commons held his nerve to slam the ball home off the underside of the crossbar.
Elsewhere Bayern Munich ensured their safe passage as winners of Group F by beating BATE Borisov 4-1, while Valencia joined them in the knockout stages with a 1-0 win at Lille.
A much-changed Manchester United side were beaten 1-0 at home by CFR Cluj, but they still topped the group. A goal from Luis Alberto handed Cluj the three points, but they were denied second place in the group as Galatasaray snatched it after rallying to beat Braga 2-1.
