De Bruyne, Salah and Lukaku Make Chelsea's European Disappointment Even Worse

With their exit from the Champions League sealed by a goal from a former player, it hasn't been a terrific week for Chelsea. Thanks to the positive continental exploits of a few former Blues, things did not get much better for them on Thursday evening.

The architect of the Wolfsburg's Europa League round of 16 first-leg victory over Inter Milan was undoubtedly Kevin De Bruyne, who was involved in all three goals in the 3-1 win. In the 29th minute, the Belgian took the brilliant out-swinging corner from which Naldo scored the equaliser...

"

VINE - Naldo ties it up for Wolfsburg https://t.co/G0qyFi56mQ

— FanSided GIF (@FanSidedGIF) March 12, 2015"

Just after the hour mark, De Bruyne found the net for himself when Inter 'keeper Juan Pablo Carrizo played the ball right to his feet...

The 23-year-old then completed his evening with a free-kick that once again called the Nerazzurri goalkeeper's ability into question...

Understandably, Twitter was awash with praise for the former Chelsea man, who has helped Die Wolfe become favourites for the tournament (as per Odds Checker)...

"

De Bruyne is so good. Been better than Oscar this season, and Cesc in 2015.

— James Hall (@James_Hall92) March 12, 2015"

"

Kevin de Bruyne is in killer form bro ! 14 goals & 19 assists this season!

— Smizzy (@Smizzyboy) March 12, 2015"

"

De Bruyne has 22 assists in all competitions this season. So good. He was played out of position at Chelsea, better than Oscar ngl.

— Niko (@Nikomarvel) March 12, 2015"

Chelsea supporters needed absolutely no reminding that Jose Mourinho let De Bruyne go to Wolfsburg in January 2014. However, they were served plenty of unwelcome reminders by the good folks of social media... 

"

Kevin De Bruyne scores his 15th goal of the season! And also has 21 assists.. pic.twitter.com/MNxzYwinGD

— Football Funnys (@FootballFunnys) March 12, 2015"

"

De Bruyne: 33 games, 15 goals, 21 assists. Salah: 8 games, 6 goals, 2 assists. Luiz: Knocked Chelsea out of the CL. pic.twitter.com/Che3NOyogG

— Footy Jokes (@Footy_Jokes) March 12, 2015"

"

Wasn't Mourinho coming out with the whole "if I was at Chelsea a great player like Matic would never have been sold.." De Bruyne's decent..

— Neymarred (@Neymarred) March 12, 2015"

Even Squawka waded in on the schadenfreude, offering a humbling Mou quote to frustrate the Shed End faithful...

In light of Chelsea's recent struggles, the performance made Blues fans doubt their transfer dealings...

"

But why did we let go of De Bruyne? Why?

— Me· (@OfficialP_Elago) March 12, 2015"

Many were hoping that the Blues board had included a buy-back clause in his contract when he was unceremoniously kicked out of Cobham...

Non-Chelsea fans, meanwhile, delighted in the idea of the club "pulling a Matic," by buying back the player they nonchalantly sold at an inflated price...

To compound the Blues fans' misery, De Bruyne's fellow alumnus Mohamed Salah enjoyed yet another good night for Fiorentina. The on-loan midfielder provided the assist for Josip Ilicic's goal in their 1-1 draw with Serie A rivals Roma...

Predictably, the memes rolled in...

"

Salah with another assist. He's on fire at the moment for Fiorentina! I wonder what Chelsea fans are thinking.. https://t.co/h5URphLm7a

— Copa90 (@Copa90) March 12, 2015"

To make matters even worse, yet another man who used to call the Bridge home had a good evening in the Europa League. Romelu Lukaku did most of the work for Everton's opener against Dynamo Kiev and managed to assist Steven Naismith...

Many suggested that Lukaku would not have fought off the advances of the Dynamo defence if he was still plying his trade in west London...

The Belgian striker then got his name on the scoresheet with a penalty...

So, to recap: In one evening, Chelsea have seen De Bruyne score twice and assist, Salah bag an assist and Lukaku play a key part in Everton's European campaign. And, of course, this comes the day after David Luiz scored a goal to help knock the Blues out of the Champions League.

Suffice to say, it's been a rough 24 hours for Mourinho and Co.

Follow @RyanJayBailey