22/10/2003  Chelsea 2 Lazio 1
 
Claudio Ranieri showed his tinkering can work as his inspired substitution helped Chelsea get their Champions League hopes firmly back on track.

Ranieri sent on Jesper Gronkjaer for Juan Sebastian Veron after 64 minutes of the Group G clash at Stamford Bridge.

The Dane's first touch was a low cross from which Adrian Mutu scored the winner, completing a brave comeback after Simone Inzaghi had given Lazio the lead before Frank Lampard drew the Blues level at the start of the second half.

Ranieri celebrated his 52nd birthday on Monday, but he might not have been in the best of sprits after seeing his side surrender top spot in the Barclaycard Premiership to Arsenal when they lost 2-1 at Highbury on Saturday.

However, the Italian could enjoy a belated party as three points sent his team above the Italians and into top spot at the halfway point of the group stage.

Chelsea knew they needed to win to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for knockout phase and they started brightly, dominating the opening half hour.

The first clear opening fell to Mutu after 12 minutes when the ball took a lucky bounce off the legs of Sinisa Mihajlovic which allowed him to turn into space inside the right edge of the box.

The Romanian steadied himself, but hit a poor low drive beyond the far post.

Another good chance went Chelsea's way after 19 minutes when a fine pass from Lampard beat the offside trap and released Eidur Gudjohnsen - who played after Hernan Crespo failed to recover from a groin strain - on the left flank.

The Icelandic international powered into the box, but surprisingly, instead of shooting, he tried to square the ball to Mutu and his pass was cut out.

In all, Ranieri made four changes to the team at Arsenal on Saturday.

Crespo was injured while Geremi, Mario Melchiot and Robert Huth were left out. And as well as Gudjohnsen, in came John Terry and William Gallas in defence, while Veron returned in midfield.

The Argentinian had promised before this game to repay Ranieri for the trust he has shown in him.

And Veron worked hard to orchestrate the show against his former club, dropping very deep to kick-start attacks.

However, for all their possession, the midfield seemed too far apart from the front two - and that meant Lazio goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi was not seriously tested.

The Italians clearly felt they could handle what Chelsea were throwing at them, and as they grew in confidence they began to emerge.

Lazio showed their hosts how it should be done as they took the lead after 37 minutes with a relatively straight-forward goal.

Massimo Oddo hoisted a deep high cross from the right channel which was nodded down at the far post by Dejan Stankovic.

Inzaghi threw himself in front of Gallas inside the six-yard box and headed the ball over the line.

Chelsea were stunned at falling behind for the second successive match and they almost responded when in the third minute of first-half injury, time Lampard hit a fierce swerving drive from 25 yards which crashed against the bar.

The second half started quietly until the 55th minute when Damien Duff cut in from the left and hit a low drive with his right foot which Peruzzi gathered, and then two minutes later Chelsea were back on level terms.

Lampard played the ball to Duff on the edge of the 18-yard box and he in turn fed it wide to Gudjohnsen.

The big striker picked out Lampard, who had remained on the 18-yard line and the England midfielder crashed the ball past a motionless Peruzzi into the top right corner.

Lazio tried to step up a gear and Cudicini went some way to redeeming himself for that howler at Highbury on Saturday as he pulled off a fine save to keep out Luciano Zauri's drive after 62 minutes.

Veron ran out of steam and was replaced two minutes later by Gronkjaer - and it proved to be an inspired substitution as from the restart Chelsea took the lead.

The Dane crossed low from the right for Mutu on the six-yard line, and after his first shot was blocked, the little Romanian pounced to whip home the rebound into the bottom-left corner.

Cudicini came to the rescue again after 75 minutes with a flying save to tip over Bernado Corradi's header, and it was virtually plain sailing from then on.

The taste of victory was made even sweeter with the news that Sparta had beaten Besiktas in the the other game, and the only low points were the first bookings of the campaign for Veron and Terry.