Chelsea v Lazio, Champions League group stage two, matchday six, Wednesday 22 March 2000

A fine win in Feyenoord the previous week had secured a place in the last-eight knockout stage of Europe’s elite competition with a game to spare, but the remaining second group stage match was no dead rubber. Top spot in the group for Gianluca Vialli’s side was still up for grabs and with it, a draw in the quarter-finals against one of the teams finishing second in theirs.Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Lazio were in contention for the top place too. Chelsea had played out a 0-0 draw with them when we met in Rome back in December and we had been a little unfortunate not to have won it near the end.Given the roll we were on in the Champions League by the spring, with back-to-back wins against Marseille and Lazio, there was plenty of reason to believe the Blues would go on to defeat the Serie A side this time around when Gustavo Poyet fired us ahead just before half-time.

The Shed End witnessed plenty of memorable goals in that European campaign and they did so again with this one from the Uruguayan. Didier Deschamps had won the ball strongly in midfield, Poyet picked it up and from well outside the penalty area, he smashed an unstoppable out-swinger into the net.

Perhaps crucially however, for this game Vialli had rested skipper Dennis Wise who had taken a knock in training the day before anyway, and Lazio’s high-quality midfield, containing the likes of Diego Simeone, Juan Sebastian Veron and Pavel Nedved, were on top for much the game. The Italian side had numerous chances to score in the first half with Ed de Goey busy and they did equalise not long after half-time.There was rare slackness from Marcel Desailly which allowed Simone Inzaghi to score from the sort of close-range distance his brother Filippo was famous for. Despite that goal making it 1-1, Chelsea in the second half had stemmed the flow of opportunities for Lazio, and their goalkeeper Luca Marchegiani had to make the two best saves over the course of the game, from a Gianfranco Zola volley and a Tore Andre Flo header.

Back in Italy, there was a player who had built up a reputation for free-kick goals to rival the one left there by Zola – Lazio’s defender Sinisa Mihajlovic. However when he lined up to take one far out wide on the Chelsea left midway through the second half, only the most pessimistic of Blues fans were fearing he would score directly. A cross seemed far more likely but somehow Mihajlovic fired the ball through the Chelsea rearguard and across the static De Goey into the far top corner.With four minutes to go, Dan Petrescu’s goalbound shot was blocked on the line with more than a suspicion of handball but nothing was given.Chelsea were not happy with the referee’s performance in general but there was a moment to make our fans smile before the end when Lazio defender Fernando Couto, guilty of cynical gamesmanship in the first meeting, was sent off. However Mihajlovic’s goal was enough for the Serie A side to win 2-1.

With defeat came the end of Chelsea’s proud 33-game, 42-year unbeaten record at home in European competition. Many had expected that to go at some point during our first elevation into the Champions League, and there was no shame in losing to a team who had begun as joint favourites to win the competition and went on to secure the Italian league and cup double that season.‘In the second half we were in control of the game,’ said Vialli after the match, ‘but against Lazio you never know as they have so many quality players.‘If you do something wrong they’ll take full advantage of that and that’s what happened.’Lazio overtook the Blues in our Champions League group to grab top place. After finishing second, at the quarter-final draw two days later Chelsea were initially paired with Bayern Munich but as a result of a redraw needed due to how another tie turned out, we were given the competition favourites Barcelona instead with the home game first – mouth-watering to say the least!

The Chelsea team v Lazio: De Goey; Ferrer, Desailly, Leboeuf (Hogh 62), Babayaro (Harley 73); Petrescu, Deschamps, Di Matteo (Morris 73), Poyet (c); Flo, Zola.Unused subs: Cudicini, Thome, Ambrosetti, Sutton.Scorer: Poyet 45

There are plenty more games featured in The Champions League box set