Post-match Reaction: Chelsea's unlikely Champions League hero Wayne Bridge admitted he did not expect to be the man who made the difference in last night's second leg victory.

Jose Reyes opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time but Frank Lampard equalised six minutes into the second half and the England full-back popped up with the winner just three minutes from time to put the Stamford Bridge side through 3-2 on aggregate.

Two minutes before that Ashley Cole had cleared Eidur Gudjohnsen's shot off the line and Bridge said he thought that was Chelsea's chance gone.

"When it was cleared off the line I thought it was not going to be our day but the lads battled hard and matched them for effort and I popped up with a goal," he said.

"It was a great ball from Eidur. I didn't think I was going to get it back but when it came I just side-footed it into the corner."

Lampard dedicated the victory to the supporters. "The fans have suffered - we haven't won against Arsenal for 19 games but they were all worth it as the longer it went on the stronger we got and we deserved to win.

"We really, really wanted to do something here."

Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri could not contain his delight at finally beating old foes Arsenal.

"Fantastic. The players believed in this victory. It was important to stay calm. I said to them 'Don't worry, we can score', and the second half was fantastic. A great performance," he said.

"It was good because we wanted to win. We wanted to finish this winless run of matches against Arsenal."

The Italian admitted he had approached the first half with some caution but once his side had fallen behind just before the interval he decided it was time to take a more aggressive approach and replaced Scott Parker with Jesper Gronkjaer.

"It was the right moment to try to do something more. The first half we wanted to close the space and go on the counter-attack but we were a little bit nervous at the beginning," Ranieri added.

"The second half we were 1-0 down so I wanted to put Gronkjaer on because he is very quick on the flank."

Speculation has been rife all year that Ranieri will be out of a job at the end of the season as owner Roman Abramovich wants to bring in his own man and even though he has guided the side to the Champions League semi-final the manager refused to look beyond May.

"I don't know (about my future). I am focusing on this season, that is important for me, the club and everyone. That is my way," he said.

"I have a very good relationship with Abramovich, (chief executive) Peter Kenyon, everybody."

Commenting on his reaction to the winning goal the popular manager displayed his now famous sense of humour. "He (Raneiri) is a crazy man." And the man whose job had been undermined all season by a desire to install Sven-Goran Eriksson in west London was laughing because he had just masterminded the success. It was Ranieri who made all the difference. It was Ranieri, the man they call the Tinkerman, who called it just right after Arsenal had dominated a first half. He replaced Scott Parker with Jesper Gronkjaer and saw the match tilt in Chelsea's favour. Then, in the final 10 minutes he sent on Hernan Crespo and Joe Cole, a move which gave Chelsea the final surge they needed - and Bridge duly supplied the coup de grace.