19/02/2008  Olympiacos 0 Chelsea 0
 
Chelsea carved out a bore 0-0 draw against Olympiacos in Athens to give themselves a real chance of reaching the last eight of the Champions League.

But the rest of Europe will hardly be quaking in their boots after the Blues failed to create one real clear-cut chance against their opponents.

However, the Londoners will be favourites to progress into the quarter-finals when the two sides meet again in the return leg at Stamford Bridge in a fortnight.

Chelsea coach Avram Grant took a massive gamble in leaving both captain John Terry and midfielder Frank Lampard on the substitutes' bench against the Greek champions.

But his plan worked as Chelsea ground out a goalless draw that made a mockery of the plan to turn his side into one of the most free-flowing in Europe.

Olympiacos proved they were no pushovers after qualifying for the knockout stages from a group that included Werder Bremen, Lazio and Real Madrid.

They have won 10 domestic titles in 11 years and Grant's decision to rest the England international duo was a brave one to take given the strength of the opposition.

It took Chelsea just 31 seconds to have the first shot on goal but unfortunately Michael Essien's effort was well wide.

Chelsea were lucky to escape in the seventh minute when Ieroklis Stoltidis tried to find Darko Kovacevic only for Ricardo Carvalho to react quickest and cut out what would have been a goalscoring opportunity for the Olympiacos forward.

In the 13th minute Anastasios Pantos got the better of Joe Cole on the left flank only for his shot to deflect off Kovacevic and out for a goal-kick to Chelsea.

Florent Malouda tested home goalkeeper Antonios Nikopolidis in the 15th minute with a right-foot volley from the edge of the penalty area which the veteran shot-stopper did well to collect at the first attempt.

Olympiacos almost opened the scoring in the 28th minute when Vassilis Torosidis just failed to connect with a flick-on from Stoltidis.

The Greek side were clearly capable of unsettling the visiting defence but for most of the half, it was Chelsea who dominated possession.

The Greek champions were far from fluid in going forward and this allowed the English side to deal comfortably with their sporadic attacks.

Chelsea defender Alex was shown the yellow card in the 35th minute for a foul on Cristian Ledesma.

The English side were being forced to defend in numbers for the first time in the game now but the home side continued to show little invention in attack.

Too many aimless long balls were collected with ease by the Chelsea defence who, like their hosts, were unable to make the most of their

possession.

It was a measure of their frustration that a shot from Claude Makelele was way off-target when the France veteran, and captain on the night, tried his luck from 30 yards.

Chelsea wasted another chance when a free-kick from Juliano Belletti was headed well wide by the unmarked Michael Ballack.

Grant resisted the opportunity to change his side during the interval but his team failed to raise their game at the start of the second half.

In the 56th minute Belletti was booked for a rash challenge on Stoltidis and Petr Cech had to be at his best to keep out a 25-yard drive from Predrag Djordjevic.

There was little to enthuse about as both sides struggled to find any fluidity during a game that rarely threatened to entertain.

It was far from the best advert for free-flowing football and Chelsea seemed quite content to pass the ball around without purpose until they lost possession.

Olympiacos would have benefited from an injection of pace in attack but the tall frame of Kovacevic was not the man to supply it.

One the rare occasions they found some pace it was from the combination of Stoltidis and Djordjevic.

They combined superbly in the 65th minute to set up a real chance for Luciano Galletti but the Olympiacos midfielder sent his right-foot volley over the crossbar from 10 yards.

Chelsea were devoid of ideas and their lack of initiative in the final third was summed up by an aimless ball from Makelele in the 68th minute that caught both Drogba and Ballack offside.

Chelsea sent on Nicolas Anelka, Frank Lampard and Salomon Kalou in the closing stages in a bid to find a goal from somewhere but it was much too late for them to make an impact.

Now Chelsea will have to finish the job on home soil to reach the quarter-finals of a competition Grant is desperate to win.