For one evening only, Giles Smith's focus wasn't entirely on Chelsea, but for wholly understandable reasons…

As Chelsea fans well know, the immutable law of the Champions League knock-out phase is that we end up playing either Liverpool or Barcelona or both. That's just the rules.

Yet, last night, unthinkably, both of those sides could have gone out of the competition before the immutable law could apply. An incredible thought. We were, potentially, on the verge of an epoch-making, culture-shifting change, a bit like the Berlin Wall coming down.

It was time, clearly, to get in front of the television and watch (possibly) the course of history change before one's eyes.

By which I mean it was time to watch Barcelona v. Inter Milan on the red button. Debrecen v. Liverpool? I don't know about you, but somehow I felt I wouldn't be missing too much if I kept up with that one via goal alerts. No disrespect.

So, five minutes to kick-off and there's huge amounts of love in the tunnel for Inter Milan's Samuel Eto'o from his former team mates. Wonder whether the same love would be there for Jose Mourinho were 'the translator' to appear among the Barca players right now in his overcoat. But there's no sign of him as yet. You'd expect him to be dominating proceedings, even at this early stage. But no.

2.18 Still no shots of Jose. What's going on with this Spanish TV producer?

6.27 A goal alert at the foot of the screen indicates that Liverpool have already scored against Debrecen. But we all secretly know how this is going to pan out. Liverpool are going to go into their final group phase game needing three goals against Fiorentina at Anfield. And then they're going to get them, and once again they'll receive wild plaudits for clambering out of a deep hole that no team worth the socks on its legs would have dug in the first place.

8.50 Barcelona's Thierry Henry flops over on the edge of the penalty area looking for a free kick. Considering he should be in prison, according to most media commentators, you've got to admire the nerve.

9.18 At last! A shot of Jose. And is that a velvet jacket? A black velvet smoking jacket? No, hang on - we draw back, and it's a knee-length black overcoat. Legendary. Barca are going OUT.

9.40 Er… or maybe not. Wigan-style marking from Inter and Pique scores the kind of lame goal from a corner that teams organised by Mourinho aren't ever meant to concede. Never. Not ever.

14.30 Inter almost mount an attack, but not quite. Jose is shown on the bench talking to his assistant, but carefully hiding his mouth with his hand to deter lip readers. Espionage always was his strong suit. Actually, I take that back. Suits were his strong suit. But espionage wasn't far behind.

17.20 Another goal alert. Rangers are a goal behind at home to Stuttgart. Are Rangers still in the Champions League? I suppose they must be. Well, what do you know?

21.49 Don Goodman, in the Sky Sports commentary box, refers to Jose as 'the little fella'. Can you think of a less appropriate, familiar address for Mourinho.? By what measure is he 'little', either in terms of stature or reputation? (Goodman, by the way, is ex-West Brom, Sunderland and Wolves. Also Motherwell, Walsall, Exeter and a loan period at Doncaster Rovers. He's exactly the kind of person you want to be hearing from on the big Barca v. Inter occasions.)

22.43 Shot of the little fella, looking thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening, as Freddie Mercury used have it. And no wonder. Inter are still playing like Wigan, only with slightly less ambition going forward.

25.10 Great goal by Pedro Rodriguez, making it 2-0 to Barcelona. Absolutely nothing that Wigan could do about it.

28.31 Jose casually side-foots the ball back to one of his players. He's lost nothing, clearly, touch-wise, as a result of his season and a bit in Italy. That said, the ball, on this occasion, had actually crossed the touchline and gone out of play. So maybe he's not pushing forward as much as he once did.

30.55 Goal alert: Fiorentina beating Lyon! That means Liverpool can go utterly goal crazy against Debrecen, and it won't matter a jot.

38.02 Henry goes down hopefully in the penalty area, Again - marks for sheer chutzpah. Apparently he thought about retiring in the wake of the World Cup handball. But for how long do you think he thought about it? I reckon it was at least 0.007 seconds.

40.03 The Spanish director of the television pictures isn't showing Jose nearly enough for my liking. Don't they know where British interest in this match really lies?

42.14 'Ole's' from the crowd as Barca play keep-ball. After 42 minutes! Jose won't like that (he was never a fan of the 'Ole', even when it was coming from the fans of his own team), but Barca do look a bit awesome. And they don't even have Lionel Messi on this occasion.

Half time. Make a cup of tea and think about Jose returning to England. Manchester United, people seem to be saying. Or possibly Liverpool. How would we all feel about that? Pretty sore, I would reckon, even though we are all, technically, of course, 'over' him.

45.18 Commentator Rob Palmer uses the expression 'the Special One' for the first time. Admirable restraint to get this far without resorting to it.

53.01 Eto'o tries to win a penalty by falling over. The argument - extremely popular at the moment - that Henry is the worst (and possibly even the only) cheat in football doesn't really stand up to much cold analysis.

61.29 Another shot of Jose, but this time revealing a set of bags under his eyes that wouldn't look entirely amiss going around on a carousel at Gatwick South. A sleepless night, Rob Palmer reckons, without elaborating further, but I swear those bags weren't there in the first half. Must be something to do with the way that losing to Barcelona can take it out of a person. I think we all know about that.

65.17 Henry gets fouled on the edge of the area and does a lot of ground-slapping and wailing at the sky. I guess that's the way it's going to be for him from now on. He's going to have to make it look ultra-convincing for the rest of his life, even when he is actually fouled.

67.55 Eto'o breaks into the penalty area, bears down on the goal… and puts the ball out for a throw in. No wonder Jose wants to come back to England. This lot are a shambles. Even managing Manchester City would probably look like fun by contrast.

81.00 On comes Ricardo Quaresma, once of this parish. And how the memories come flooding back. Both of them. Well, just the one, really. And even that's a bit foggy. A cross with the outside of the boot, wasn't it? Against somebody? Anyway. On we go.

88.33 Inter's tactic, for the last 20 minutes or so, has basically been to kick anyone in a Barca shirt on the back of the calves, with varying degrees of animosity. Ruthless, definitely. But, you would have to say, not all that efficient.

92.45 Jose, standing in the technical area, thinks about shouting something, but doesn't. Probably deciding to save it for the dressing room afterwards, where he will almost certainly be doing an awful lot of shouting.

95.00 Full time, and unless I've missed a goal alert somewhere, Liverpool are out.

96.00 I haven't missed a goal alert. Liverpool are out and it's Channel 5 all the way for them now.

Barca, on the other hand, are all but through. And looking worryingly good. Ah, well. Get your diary out.