Chelsea had made the decision to sack manager Di Matteo after suffering defeat against Juventus in the Champions League and appointed former Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez as interim manager for the rest of the season.
Appointed in March 2012 as caretaker manager, Di Matteo led the team to win their first ever Champions League as well as FA Cup last season. At the same time, he was also the only former Chelsea player who was hired as manager after owner Roman Abramovich took over in 2003, having scored 26 goals in 175 appearances.
After winning seven out of their first eight Premier League matches, the Blues have only won two of the last eight games and risked being the first Champions League holders that fail to progress through the group stage after losing 3-0 to Juventus.
Benitez, 52, becomes Chelsea's ninth manager in nine years after Abramovich bought the club.
He was most famous when being the manager of Liverpool between 2005 and 2010, in which he won the Champions League in 2005 against A.C. Milan and FA Cup in 2006. He also helped the Reds reaching Champions League final in 2007, when they were defeated by Milan, the same team that we met in the final two years ago.
The Spaniard later joined Internazionale in June 2010 and won the Italian Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup before being sacked after spending less than half a year at the club. He has been out of job since then before joining Chelsea.
However, the appointment of Benitez was not widely accepted by some Chelsea fans, which pointed to his association with rivals Liverpool and clashes with former Blues manager Jose Mourinho when both teams met in the Champions League.
Benitez temporary appointment could allow the team to approach ex-Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola to be their next long-term manager.
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