Last night Chelsea were entitled to be optimistic. Manchester United's victories over Internazionale and Juventus in last season's tournament had broken the spell Italian teams had so often cast over English sides in this competition.
Surely if any Premier League team could see off opposition from Serie A it was Gianluca Vialli's multi-national mix. And if any one player knew about Milan it was surely Marcel Desailly, a former defender at the San Siro.
With Dennis Wise a token Englishman among the 21 foreigners who were on at the start this was a match which could have taken place anywhere in western Europe. But Chelsea are Chelsea in any language and they needed to make up for lost time, namely the 44 years which had elapsed since the club won its only English championship and were dissuaded by the Football League from competing in the first European Cup.
In theory, Milan's present policy of playing three up front gave Chelsea a numerical advantage in midfield. Certainly much was going to depend on the space found by Dan Petrescu and Gustavo Poyet as well as the outcome of the battle of wits between Wise and his marker Gennaro Gattuso.
As much, however, rested in the ability of Didier Deschamps to establish his authority between the penalty areas. As early as the seventh minute the Frenchman caught Demetrio Albertini in possession before sending in Gianfranco Zola for a shot past a post.
It was in Milan's interest to relax the tempo, hence the urgency of Chelsea's initial movements with a lot of emphasis on the flanks and the tall head of Tor Andre Flo an inviting target near goal. Maybe Zola, scuttling around the area between midfield and attack held the key.
Little was seen of the Milan attack until midway through the first half when Andrei Shevchenko dragged the ball wide of Frank Leboeuf and from an awkward position still managed to draw a save from Ed de Goey. It was an apt time to remind Chelsea of the possible consequences of wasting opportunities.
A minute earlier Deschamps had fed the ball to Poyet whose centre from the left was perfectly flighted for Flo, but the Norwegian failed to find the target with his header. The longer the game progressed without a goal the more attractive a draw would be for Milan.
As Leonardo began to busy himself in Chelsea's half, striving to link up with Shevchenko and Oliver Bierhoff, the pattern of apparent Chelsea domination was interrupted. Yet Vialli's team really needed Leboeuf to step out from the back and give his team another dimension, for Milan were starting to absorb Chelsea's attacks with relative ease.
In the second half Chelsea badly needed to pick up the pace of the game as soon as possible. But some idea of what they were up against was demonstrated in a little cameo which saw Zola sell a dummy to Maldini only to be dispossessed after the Milan captain had recovered to make a sliding tackle.
Milan, sensing that their opponents were pushing forward with some anxiety, now found more opportunities to attack on the break and in greater numbers than hitherto. Now the match became end-to-end, now Leboeuf was augmenting Chelsea attacks and saw a likely header cleared by Alessandro Costacurta before it could reach Christian Abbiati in goal.
The more Deschamps was forced back by Leonardo the more Milan gained a grip of the play. But generally their crosses and final passes were not of a quality to offer Bierhoff chances in the air or Shevchenko opportunities on the ground.
Nevertheless Milan were now forcing corners at a sufficient rate for Chelsea's need for a goal to become even more acute. They thought they had scored five minutes past the hour when Zola accepted a return pass from Petrescu, slipped through a gap and beat Abbiati only to see his shot hit a post. Seconds later Zola was through again but this time the Abbiati turned his shot wide.
Chelsea: De Goey, Ferrer, Desailly, Leboeuf (Hogh 80), Babayaro, Petrescu, Deschamps, Wise, Poyet (Le Saux 79), Flo (Sutton 84), Zola. Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Ambrosetti, Morris, Lambourde.
AC Milan: Abbiati, Ayala, Costa Curta, Maldini, Helves, Albertini, Gattuso, Guly, Shevchenko, Bienhoff, Leonardo (Giunti 82). Subs Not Used: Rossi, Ganz, De Ascentis, N'gotty, Sala, Serginho. Booked: Bienhoff, Helves.
Referee: A Frisk (Sweden).
AC Milan's Demetrio Albertini heads clear despite a strong challenge from Chelsea's Frank Leboeuf during last night's Champions League game at Stamford Bridge. (Photograph: Rebecca Naden/PA).
