Jose Mourinho insisted it had nothing to do with revenge after his Inter Milan side knocked Chelsea and his former players out of the Champions League.

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Samuel Eto'o scored the second-half goal which clinched a 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge and handed the Italians an emphatic 3-1 triumph on aggregate. To complete Chelsea's misery, striker Didier Drogba was sent off for kicking out at Inter midfielder Thiago Motta as tempers frayed in a tense second half.

Mourinho, who spent three and a half years and won back-to-back Premier League titles at Stamford Bridge before being axed by owner Roman Abramovich, said: "I'm very happy. Very, very happy because we won and because we were the best team.

"Sometimes in football you win because you're lucky. Sometimes you win because you are the best team. Sometimes you win because you were the best team from the first to the last minute. That team was my team and my players.

"I'm not very happy because they (Chelsea) lost. I'm very happy because my players are happy, my supporters are happy, my president is happy and because I worked so much for this game.

"As a professional, that's the best feeling you can have. I'm not happy because my ex-players or Roman (Abramovich) lost, or that Chelsea supporters go home sad. I'm not happy about their unhappiness.''

Mourinho claimed his team had put doubt into the minds of the Chelsea players by playing three strikers in Eto'o, Diego Milito and Goran Pandev with Dutch playmaker Wesley Sneijder in the hole just behind them.

Mourinho said: "I planned. I believed Ivanovic and Zhirkov didn't play well either in attack or defence and that created some doubts in them. They felt even in the first half that it wasn't their match. We didn't play a defensive game, we controlled the match and we deserved to win.

"I'm not saying Inter are better than them. I'm saying that, today, Inter were much better than Chelsea and that brought frustration to the Chelsea players.''

Mourinho revealed he had swapped text messages with Chelsea captain John Terry yesterday and told him that one of them was going to end up being "very sad''.

But he added of his former colleagues: "My people will always be my people. But today I was the enemy. And the enemy won. That's life. It's a very important victory for me as a coach, but not the victory of my life. That will be in the future.''

Asked if Chelsea were further from winning the Champions League than ever under owner Roman Abramovich, he added: "No. Roman is a very intelligent person and, because of that, he's not the same person today than he was one year ago, two years, three years, five years ago. Not the same person he was when he arrived in football.

"Probably he thought it would be easy when he arrived in football. It's not easy. It's difficult. The team that wins will have small details that will make the difference.

"He knows it's not easy. He knows now how to read a game, understand the game, analyse the game, and knows his team lost against a team who deserved to win. Because he's a man of fair play. I'm sure he accepts the situation with fairness and class because he'll know that Inter were the best team.''

Meanwhile, Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti was generous in his praise of Inter. He said: "They played a very good game. We were not able to play how we wanted. Inter deserved to win. We are very sorry but this is the reality.

"We were never in control. Inter put us under a lot of pressure and were dangerous on the break. There were only short periods when we could control it.''

Ancelotti refused to criticise German referee Wolfgang Stark despite having two penalty claims turned down against Drogba. But he admitted that he would come under increased pressure considering the Champions League was Abramovich's priority this season. Chelsea are still in second place in the Premier League behind Manchester United and in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Ancelotti said: "We have to be strong and have control of our emotions. Maybe the defeat could be very good motivation for the next games. My regret is that we did not play as well as in the first leg. I've worked a long time in this environment and it is normal that the manager comes under more pressure if he loses a few matches.''

Inter midfielder Wesley Sneijder believes his side have what it takes to reach the Champions League final. He said: "This is an important result. Chelsea are one of the biggest teams in the world and to beat them, it's a big step. In Italy it's an important time, but we are still not in the final.''

Asked if Inter could reach the final, the Dutchman added: "We can do it when we play like today, of course we can do it.'' Sneijder felt Inter were good value for the win.

He said: "They (Chelsea) want to fight and they did it in the first half but we dominated the whole game and there wasn't any danger for us. We knew we had to create chances and they came finally, really we should have scored more - two or three. In the first game we were a bit lucky but today we deserved to win.''