AC. MILAN   V   CHELSEA

DATE

Tuesday 26th October 1999

KICK OFF

7.45 pm

AT

Champions League Phase 1 Match 5

San Siro, Milan

FIXTURE

SCORE

MAN OF THE MATCH

ATTENDENCE

Dennis Wise

74,855

1-1

Nikolai Levnikov (Russia)

REFS PERFORMANCE

REFEREE

8/10

TEAMS

CHELSEA

Ed De Goey, Albert Ferrer, Marcel Desailly, FGrank Leboeuf, Celestine Babayaro, Dan Petrescu, Didier Deschamps, Dennis Wise, Gustavo Poyet, Gianfranco Zola, Tore Andre Flo

SUBSTITUTES

Morris 46 (Petrescu) Di Matteo 75 (Poyet) Ambrosetti 81 (Zola) Cudicini, Lambourde

BOOKED

Zola, Ferrer

SCORERS

Dennis Wise 77mins

AC. MILAN

Abbiati, Alessandra Costacurta, Roberto Ayala, Paolo Maldini, Guly, Gennaro Ggattuso, Massimo Ambrosini, Leonardo, Serginho, Oliveir Bierhoff, Andriy Shevchenko

SUBSTITUTES

Boban 57 (Leonardo) Orlandini 86 (Serginho)

BOOKED

Ambrosini, Ayala, Leonardo, Costacurta

SCORERS

Bierhoff 74 mins

MATCH REPORT

A game I watched in the Shed Bar and what a fantastic atmosphere in there with everybody singing as loud as they could, GREAT STUFF.

The game itself was a classic, with end to end goalmouth action.

What we done was to take the game to Milan with a positive attitude, to attack them and catch them on the break.

We could of easily been 3-0 up at halftime with Flo and Petrescu both going very close.

With 5, 000 Chelsea fans packed into the San Siro, urging the team on every attack, we all felt that Chelsea would eventualy score .

At 0-0 at halftime we were satisfied with the scoreline and a  breakthrough in the 2nd period looked on the cards.

It certainly looked that way, with more chances wasted and Milan goalkeeper Abiatti making save after save to keep us out, surely something would give, and it did when Gus missed a clear chance with a header to be foiled by Abbiati, who released a quick ball out and following a cross, Bierhoff scored with a header completely against the run of play.

Did our heads drop, did they hell, Vialli realising that we were still very much in the game, carried out a masterstroke by substituting Poyet for Di Matteo.

It was not long before we got a reward for our dominance in the game, when Di Matteo picked up a loose ball just inside the Milan half and launched a sublime ball onto Dennis Wise right over the static Milan defence to fire the ball under the approaching Abiatti into the net, and with that earn us the valuable point we needed, to keep our Champions League ambitions well on course.

For me Dennis Wise was my man of the match who's distibution was fantastic all night and the goal was probably the most important goal he will ever score

A special mention must go to the travelling Blue Army who never stopped singing right through the game and also the Bird in the Chelsea end who celebrated Wisey's goal by Flashing her tits off to everybody," Does anybody know here?

So a memorable night for all Chelsea fans, the night we finally arrived on the big European stage.

Onwards to Wednesday night to the Bridge, when hopefully we can earn the point needed against Hertha Berlin to take us into the next stage of

The Champions League


Viva Vialli