Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o scored for the Inter Milan on Tuesday as the Italian champions beat Chelsea 1-0 in Stamford Bridge to reach the quarterfinals of Champions League.

Having already won the first leg 2-1, Inter go into Friday's draw for the quarterfinals with a 3-1 aggregate victory.

Inter coach Jose Mourinho, who returned to his former place of employment, played three upfront with Eto'o, Diego Milito and Goran Pandev. But it was Chelsea that needed to win for the return leg of the last 16 round.

Both sides started playing attacking soccer from the first whistle and the home side had a penalty appeal turned down by German referee Wolfgang Stark in the sixth minute when Florent Malouda ran into Brazilian defender Lucio.

Shortly afterwards, Germany captain Michael Ballack tried a long range effort for the home side, but it went just wide.

Didier Drogba then came close for Chelsea but this time it was defender Maicon who blocked the shot.

Eto'o had Inter's best chance in the first half when Chelsea captain John Terry misjudged a cross from Maicon, but Eto'o failed to connect properly.

Shortly before the break Chelsea again came close, but Walter Samuel managed to block Malouda's shot.

Inter broke the deadlock in the 78th minute when an accurate pass from Wesley Sneijder sent Eto'o through and the Cameroon striker slot past Chelsea's third choice goalkeeper Ross Turnbull.

Any hope Chelsea had of coming back into the game were killed off five minutes from the end when Drogba was shown a straight red card for stomping on Thiago Motta.

Eto'o came close to making it two for his side when he was again sent through in injury time, but Turnbull managed to pull off a good save to deny the striker.

Mourinho will be without defenders Motta and Lucio for their first leg quarterfinals after both of them received their second booking in the tournament.

For Chelsea it is only the second time in seven seasons that they have failed to advance at least to the semifinals of the Champions League.