CHELSEA    V    AC. MILAN

Wednesday 15th September 1999

7.45.pm

KICK OFF

DATE

AT

Stamford Bridge

Champions League Phase 1 Match 1

FIXTURE

MAN OF THE MATCH

SCORE

ATTENDENCE

Gianfranco Zola

33,873

0-0

7/10

Anders Frisk, Sweden

REFS PERFORMANCE

REFEREE

Mikael Nilsson, Sweden
Kenneth Petersson, Sweden

ASISTANT REFEREES

4th OFFICIAL

Morgan Norman, Sweden

Antonio Ferreira de Sequeira, Portugal

UEFA DELEGATE

TEAMS

CHELSEA

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

SUBSTITUTES
Le Saux (Poyet 79) Sutton (Flo 84), Cudicini, Ambrosetti, Morris, Lambourde

BOOKED

AC MILAN

Christian Abiati, Roberto Ayala, Alessandro Costacurta, Paolo Maldini, Thomas Helveg, Demetrio Albertini, Gennaro Gattuso, Guly, Andriy Shevchenko, Oliver Bierhoff, Leonardo,

SUBSTITUTES
Giunti (Leonardo 82) Rossi, Ganz, De Ascentis, N'gotty, Sala, Serginho

MATCH REPORT

Please let me deal with the negative parts of the game first.

What has happened to Gus over the last few weeks, ok he looks to be playing to orders playing wide on the left, but he just dont manage to arrive in the box from deep positions like he did.

I dearly hope you are listening Luca, cos he's waisted out there on the left side of the park, and its already effecting our goal ratio.


Right now I have got that moan out of the way, let me discuss the game.


Chelsea completly controlled the game in every department from defence to the attack, with"The Rock" Marcel Desailly having another brilliant game but for me the Man of the match was the "Little Italian Genius"- Gianfranco Zola  who twisted and turned Milan's defence inside out, making Albertini and Helveg look ordinary players.With is mesmirising skills and his first touch, you would be hard pushed to see him play any better than this.

I would walk a thousand miles to watch this guy play, and last nights performance will go down as one of the greatest individual performances of any player in the history of Chelsea Football Club.

If you have never seen him play, get down to the Bridge and see a true master plying his trade, a Truly, Truly World Class player and a "CHELSEA LEGEND" .

Although we never scored, and the fact that Zola was unlucky not to score when hitting the post, we had no problem of containing Bierhoff or Shevchenko (Did he play tonight).

Marcel was more than a match for him, and so was Chelsea, we were all over them barring scoring that all important goal.

Vialli had chose to rotate his team to a certain degree, resting Sutton, who I think does not deserve a first team spot every week.


Milan were left to no more than about 3 chances all game, and that is a clear statistic as to how we have "improved as a club".

Particular mention must go to Dennis Wise and Didier Deschamps who both worked so tirelesy in midfield.

Chelsea and in particular Tore Andre Flo should of done better with 2 headers.

With Zola's briliant  link up play with Tore Andre Flo and  his subsequent shot beating goalkeeper Abbiati and rebounding off the post we sensed that the gods were not on our side.

In the dying moments after Le Saux replacing a tired Gustavo Poyet, Zola yet again went close, with Abbiati again making a great save, and also a fine drive by Dan Petrescu the result looked destined to be a draw.

But only positive conclusions can be made from this game-

In Marcel Desailly we have one of the greatest defenders in World Football.

In Gianfranco Zola we have a truly wonderfull gifted player who is quite simply "Awesome"

The name of Chelsea Football Club has now arrived on the big stage

"EUROPE WATCH OUT"

The game I will never forget for the rest of my life, a night I would never of dreamed of happening a few years ago-

Chelsea   v   ACMilan

"THE DREAM JUST GETS BETTER"


Milan had nothing at all to offer up front, and there performance can only give us much confidence at the return match at San Siro

Viva Vialli

Somehow Watford does not have the same appeal.