Good night for Chelsea

Chelsea celebrate Eidur Gudjohnsen's first goal

Chelsea 3-0 Levski Sofia

Stand-in striker Eidur Gudjohnsen was Chelsea's matchwinner in their Uefa Cup first-leg first round victory over Levski Sofia at Stamford Bridge.

Gudjohnsen, who replaced the suspended Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, had only played three minutes as a substitute this season before Thursday but took his chance impressively.

The Icelandic international scored in a goal in each half against the Bulgarian champions with Frank Lampard adding a third to leave Chelsea favourites to progress.

He (Gudjohnsen) is a fantastic man and a fantastic player - he always scores important goals for us

Claudio Ranieri

Levski Sofia will undoubtedly improve in the return leg but Claudio Ranieri's side look set to improve on last year's first round defeat at the hands of Swiss side St Gallen.

Gudjohnsen got Chelsea on their way in first-half injury time after the home side had dominated the opening period without creating many clear-cut chances.

Collecting the ball from a throw-in he cut through the visitors' defence before finishing with a delicate chip over keeper Georg Petkov.

That was just the boost Chelsea needed at the end of a half in which they struggled to break down an organised Sofia side.

Rainieri was not helped by the loss of Emmanuel Petit who was replaced after half-an-hour by Jody Morris after failing to shrug off a chest infection.

No mistake

It was a similar story after the break although Boudewijn Zenden went close a couple of times with well struck shots.

The Dutch international then saw a header superbly saved pushed around the post by Petkov but Gudjohnsen made no mistake from the resulting corner.

Boudewijn Zenden tackles Iliam Stoyanov

Sofia picked up the pace in the last 10 minutes as they pressed for an away goal with Stanimir Stoilov flashing a drive just past the far post.

But Ed de Goey stood firm for Chelsea and it was left to Lampard to effectively finish the tie scoring at the second attempt after being played in by the impressive Zenden.

---

Chelsea: de Goey, Melchiot, Gallas, Terry, Le Saux, Zenden, Lampard, Petit, Jokanovic, Gudjohnsen, Zola. Subs: Ferrer, Di Cesare, Morris, Dalla Bona, Aleksidze, Knight, Bosnich.

Levski Sofia: Petkov, Stankov, Stoilov, Biser Ivanov, Markov, Genchev, Botelho, Topuzakov, Golovskoj, Chilikov, Stoyanov. Subs: Trenchev, Angelov, Telkiiski, Dragich, Pantelic, Ivankov, Tzvetino.

Referee: Helmut Fleischer (Hallstadt)