Chelsea 1 SS Lazio 2

SS Lazio saved themselves with an excellent second half display at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea blew both a lead and the chance to draw a lesser team in the quarter finals.

As the competition gets down to its knockout stage Chelsea are now certain to meet one of Manchester United, FC Barcelona or Bayern Munich after Friday's draw in Zurich and their Champions League run looked to have collapsed with their showing against the side from Rome.

Lazio inflicted the first Chelsea home defeat in 42 years of European cup competition and the home side did not look good.

In another milestone Chelsea fielded 11 foreign players in the Champions League, the first time a club has done this in European games.

It did not help them as Simone Inzaghi signalled Lazio's intentions with a powerful drive in the second minute which he was unlucky to hit straight at Ed De Goey in the Chelsea goal.

In the 42nd minute the same striker was on the end of another chance which De Goey had to beat away to safety and Lazio looked like confirming their superiority with a goal.

The Chelsea players never coped with the high tempo pressure game introduced from the start by their opponents but the home side were able to take the lead in the 44th minute when captain Gustavo Poyet won a challenge in the Lazio half and powered forward to unleash a swerving drive with his right fot that drifted away from the drive of Luca Marchegiani and into the corner of the net.

It was more than the Premiership side deserved on the run of play with their midfield looking very poor and overrun in the absence of the combative Dennis Wise.

Tempers were on edge throughout the game and several times players confronted each other over challenges but the expected storm from Lazio did not materialise at the start of the second session.

Alen Boksic was brought on for Stankovic but Chelsea looked comfortable until Lazio got the ball to run across the face of goal as an angled cross found Pavel Nedved in the clear.

The Czech miscontrolled the pass and this took him wide on the left which wrong footed the defenders and allowed him to clip the ball into the front of the target where Inzaghi and Marcel Desailly went to ground to meet it. The striker's touch was the one which counted amd the ball plopped into the net via the deflection in the 54th minute.

Chelsea panicked and Lazio took their cue to increase the speed of their game even further. Every challenge and loose ball seemed to be won by Lazio and in the 64th minute Celestine Babayaro tangled with Boksic on the right hand side of the area and touched the ball with his hand conceding a free kick.

Sinisa Mihajlovic struck it cleanly into the far corner from the narrow angle to emphasise his possession of the Serie A record for goals from free kicks which he took from Gianfranco Zola. Sadly Zola's set plays all night were poor and Chelsea created no clear chance to get level.

Marcelo Salas was brought on as a substitute in the 68th minute and forced Albert Ferrer to make the defensive tackle of the night when he was just about to pounce on a through ball from Veron. Ferrer followed alongside the Chilean and thrust the ball away just in time.

With five minutes to go Salas was taken off and clearly mouthed abuse at the coaching staff at the decision with the 'F' word prominent in vernacular Italian as he took off his shirt in a gesture of defiance.

Gianluca Vialli probably said the same thing in the 83rd minute when Dan Petrescu was clear on the right side of the penalty area but his low drive was cleared off the line by Paolo Negro as the defender fell over the ball and deflected the shot wide.

There was time for the night's violence to see Fernando Couto red carded in the 82nd minute for a second booking earned for cutting right through Tore Andre Flo. Twenty minutes before Pancaro had brutalised Zola in the same fashion to earn a caution in the worst hostilities of the night.

Lazio won everything at Stamford Bridge and coach Eriksson may have won a future at the club after this result.

The Rome club face AS Roma in the derby game at the weekend which should wreck any long celebrations of this win.

Chelsea know they now face a game just as tough in two weeks and their form tonight would suggest an early exit.

Barca, United or Bayern need not worry about a side who gets so few shots on target and rarely looks like scoring.