LONDON, England (AP) — Chelsea surprisingly brought Rafael Benitez out of the coaching wilderness yesterday by hiring the Spaniard as interim manager after mercilessly firing the man who guided the club to their first Champions League title.

Benitez agreed a short-term contract with the European champions until the end of the season, nearly two years after being fired by Inter Milan in his last coaching role. He was previously in charge of Valencia and Liverpool, the club where he won the Champions League in 2005.

The 52-year-old Benitez becomes the ninth manager under Chelsea’s Russian owner, Roman Abramovich, who displayed his trademark ruthlessness by cutting Roberto Di Matteo only six months after the Italian led the team to victory in the Champions League final over Bayern Munich.

The 3-0 loss to Juventus on Tuesday proved to be Di Matteo’s final match in charge, with the result in Turin leaving Chelsea in danger of becoming the first reigning champion to fail to reach the knockout stage.

Chelsea has also dropped to third place in the Premier League after picking up just two points from its past four matches.

Benitez was flying to London from Abu Dhabi yesterday and will meet the squad for the first time at the club’s training ground today. His first match in charge will be in the league on Sunday at home to Manchester City, the reigning champions and current unbeaten leaders.

Pep Guardiola, currently on a one-year sabbatical after leaving Barcelona at the end of last season, had also been linked with the post and could yet replace Benitez in the offseason.

Given Abramovich’s history of hastily firing managers, there was a certain inevitability about Di Matteo’s demise, even though the Swiss-born Italian was only awarded a two-year contract in June after an impressive spell as caretaker coach in which he also led Chelsea to the FA Cup title.

Di Matteo was told by chairman Bruce Buck and chief executive Ron Gourlay that he had been fired at a 4:00 am meeting yesterday at the training ground, soon after landing back in England following a flight from Turin.

He is believed to have already said farewell to his players in the dressing room after the loss to Juventus.

In Benitez’s favour is his experience and close relationship with Fernando Torres from their time together at Anfield. Getting the best out of Torres could be crucial to pleasing Abramovich, who signed the Spain striker for £50 million ($81 million) in January 2011.

Hiring Benitez is a risk, however, given his trademark defensive approach. Abramovich is widely known to prefer a more attractive style, as demonstrated by spending a combined reported £70 million ($110 million) on attackers Oscar, Eden Hazard, Marko Marin and Victor Moses in the offseason.