09/12/2003  Besiktas 0 Chelsea 2
 
Chelsea survived a gauntlet of hate and silenced 51,000 hostile Turkish fans with goals from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and substitute Wayne Bridge to win Group G of the Champions League.

Claudio Ranieri's men needed only a point to go into Friday's draw for the last 16 as one of the seeded clubs, but they impressively rose above the hostile atmosphere in the Aufschalke Arena and claimed all three against the disappointing Turkish champions.

Unpredictable coach Ranieri surprised everyone with his formation, reverting to a back three of John Terry, William Gallas and skipper Marcel Desailly. He also rested Romanian striker Adrian Mutu, who was a booking away from suspension, and went with Hasselbaink and Jesper Gronkjaer up front.

It was this formation which saw the Blues suffer their first defeat of the season, at home to Besiktas in October, but this time the 'Tinkerman' got it absolutely right.

UEFA had switched this game from Istanbul in the interests of safety following recent terrorist attacks there, but the angry locals were determined to make Chelsea feel as if they were in Turkey.

Banners around the arena which resembled Cardiff's Millennium Stadium - with the roof open - sent out messages such as: "Welcome to Istanbul" and "We love Alpay", and red flares were lit.

The Turks opened at a charging pace as they rose to the occasion in the stadium which will host the final of this season's competition on May 26, determined to get the win they too needed to secure their passage into the next phase as group winners.

That early enthusiasm was short-lived, however, and fortunately Chelsea looked calm and composed, building well down the left flank with Celestine Babayaro, Geremi and Gronkjaer.

Their neat passing game produced a good chance after 16 minutes as Babayaro joined the attack and was denied at close range by goalkeeper Oscar Cordoba.

Chelsea were strolling, but had a very lucky escape a minute before the break. Daniel Pancu looked yards offside as he chased a long clearance but the flag stayed down and fortunately for an anxious looking Ranieri the Besiktas man blazed his shot wide of the near hand post.

The start to the second half was delayed as the fans hurled rolls and rolls of toilet tissue on to the pitch, covering the entire area to the left of Cudicini's goal, and an army of stewards had to rush on to clear it up.

That did not deter the Turks, who sent yet more rolls of white paper on to the turf, and in the end the referee decided to take the players back off the pitch to protect them from the cold. When they finally emerged for the restart some eight minutes had elapsed.

Cudicini hardly looked comfortable as five minutes into the second half a blue flare was lobbed into his six yard box. Fortunately for Chelsea all the fireworks were taking place off the pitch, as they continued to look assured.

After 64 minutes Glen Johnson was almost struck by a missile hurled from the crowd behind the dug-out as he took a throw, and the players on the Besiktas bench had to appeal to their fans to cut it out.

Gronkjaer set up another good chance after 72 minutes as he raced down the right and pulled the ball back to the edge of the box for Geremi. He tried to place his shot and Cordoba stood tall to tip it over the bar.

Ranieri used the stop in play to replace the Danish winger with Damien Duff.

It was no surprise when Chelsea grabbed a thoroughly deserved goal after 77 minutes. Geremi pounced on a loose ball to and passed to Duff who fed it through to Hasselbaink inside the penalty area.

This time he made no mistake in slotting it past Cordoba and into the bottom left corner.

Bridge replaced Babayaro after 82 minutes and was celebrating two minutes later with his first goal for the club.

He was the spare man on the overlap on the left edge of the box and when Hasselbaink set him up he drilled a low shot into the bottom far corner to seal a super European night for the Blues - who had to leave the pitch shielded by umbrellas to avoid a barrage of missiles.