CHELSEA    V   GALATASARAY

Tuesday 28th September 1999

DATE

KICK OFF

7.45pm

Champions League Phase 1 Match 3

AT

FIXTURE

Stamford Bridge

SCORE

MAN OF THE MATCH

ATTENDENCE

Frank Leboeuf

1-0

33,426

REFEREE

Dick Jol, The Netherlands

REFS PERFORMANCE

8/10

Gerard Hubers, The Netherlands,
Eugen Theelen, The Netherlands

ASISSTANT REFEREES

4th OFFICIAL

Henny De Graaf, The Netherlands

Marc Tarmak, Estonia

UEFA DELEGATE

TEAMS

Chelsea

Ed De Goey, Albert Ferrer, Marcel Desailly, Frank Leboeuf, Celestine Babayaro, Dan Petrescu, Dennis Wise, Jody Morris , Gabriele Ambrosetti, Chris Sutton, Gianfranco Zola

SUBSTITUTES

Hogh 62 ( Desailly ) Poyet 52 ( Ambrosetti ) Flo 84 ( Sutton ) Hitchcock, Le Saux, Forssell, Lambourde

GALATASARAY

Claudio Taffarel, Gheorghe Popescu, Arif Erdem, Okan Buruk, Hakan Sukur, Gheorghe Hagi, Fatih Akyel, Umit Davala, Hakan Unsal, Ergun Pembe, Capone

Emrah 71 (Okan) Hasan 72 (Hagi) Mehmet 33 (Arif) Bruno, Ahmet, Marcio

SUBSTITUTES

Taffarel ( Sent Off 32 )

BOOKED

MATCH REPORT

This was always going to be a thrilling night in the history of Chelsea Football Club, with the visit of Galatasaray and their crazy fans.

After leaving Fulham Broadway station and heading for the Shed Bar the front of the hotel was jammed packed with Galatasaray fans , chanting , jumping up and down, I dont think Chelsea Village will ever see anything like that again.


The match itself kicked off at a frentic pace with Galatasaray showing  there class and controlling the first 20 minutes with Chelsea back peddling to keep them out, Hagi's quick and effective passing gave Chelsea's midfield a few headaches.

We graduly got some rythm to our game and Zola missed a great chance with his head, half chances going to Sutton and Petrescu also going to waist.

The first real chance came gala's way when a looped ball was knocked over the approching Ed De Goey and the ball looked destined to roll into the empty net, but somehow Ed managed to get back and claw the ball away right on the line and getting injured in the process.

Chelsea stepped up a gear, and a great through ball saw Dan Petrescu race onto it with just the goalkeeper to beat, goalie Tafferel read the situation and raced out of his box to collect the ball but he quite clearly handled outside the box, the referree had no choice but to send Tafferel off, becuase quite clearly Dan would of scored.

Gala were forced to take off the dangerous Arif and replace him with sub goalkeeper Mehmet.

If Chelsea were going to breech the organised Turkish defence it was now, with only 10 men, the openings should come or so we thought.

Around the 30 minute mark, Stamford Bridge was entertained by 4 Turkish PKK protestors who had invaded the pitch to unveil a banner, one in particular got a bit too near to Dennis Wise who rugby tackled the protestor to the floor, and getting a raptious applause fronm the crowd, it certainly helped to defuse our nerves a bit thats for sure.

The second half started at the same pace as the first with end to end football and Frank Leboeuf and Marcel Desailly absolutely solid in defence .

Chelsea were now the better team and yet again our strikers were guilty of squandering chance after chance, the Impish Zola had a wonderfull free kick which looked goalbound only to see the ball hit the post and the packed Stamford Bridge crowd could not believe it.

We kept the presuure on the Turks and for better finishing it could or should of been 5-0.

With nerves on edge we all wondered if we were going to get the so important goal, we all knew the importance of the match and if we failed to beat Galatasaray are chances of progressing in the Champions League would be remote.

We did not have to wait much longer when Dan Petrescu found himself in the box and hitting a first time shot which the goalkeeper could only parry away and the ball luckly came straight back to Petrescu who jinked inside a defender and unleashed a shot which rifled into the back of the net.

"We had done it", the goal to ignite every Chelsea's fan's passion, the sound of "Super, Super Dan, Super Dan Petrescu" reverberating around Stamford Bridge will stay in my mind for years to come, and the crowd were again in excellant voice "Keep it up Lads"

When the ref finally blew the whistle to end the game everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief in the expectation that we are by no means now out of the Champions League

Next Stop!  Istanbul  "Welcome to Chelsea hell"

Viva Vialli