Champions League: Chelsea Has Benfica Singing the Blues After Knockout

LONDON, England—There was no question in 90 percent of the soccer-watching world's minds; Chelsea was going to beat Benfica in the quarterfinal of the UEFA Champions League.

Although the 90 percent were correct, it came at the blame of the referee for the Benfica supporters and teams.

In the first leg of the draw, Chelsea fared well with a 1-0 away victory in Estadio de Luz. Coming into the second leg, Benfica had already been written off by many and could be proud of their impressive performance at Stamford Bridge as they fell 2-1 to the London-based team.

Benfica played most of the match with 10 men thanks to Maxi Pereira's send off in the 40th minute by Slovenian referee Damir Skomina, and suffered a penalty call at the 21st minute of the game after a shoulder-to-shoulder between Javi Garcia and Ashley Cole, which Lampard converted.

To refresh your memory, Skomina was the referee involved in the Arsenal-AC Milan Round-of-16 game where Arsene Wenger received a three-match ban. Skomina handed out eight yellow cards in the quarterfinal match.

Javi Garcia, who was forced to play centre-back do to the injury-plagued back line of "as aguias," scored an equalizer in the 85th minute and gave hope to the Portuguese team. As he's done many times, ex-FC Porto player Raul Meireles buried one passed Arthur for the Chelsea win and Benfica knockout, but not without controversy.

Benfica president Luis Felipe Vieira was furious with the officiating and the manner of which the game was held, and he did not show his remorse in his promise to protest the match.

He spoke to RTP news outlet in Portugal and claimed, "Over the two games we proved we were much the better team. What hurts me is that we've knocked out better teams than this Chelsea. I may be wrong but I believe Chelsea have no chance against Barcelona."

Mourinho's Real Madrid is agreeing with Benfica, as he has the possibility of meeting Chelsea in the finale but does not believe they will make it through.

Was Benfica knockout the officials fault?

Whether it was the referee or Petr Cech, Chelsea won and is onto the next round.