Soccer/Champions League semi-final: Chelsea half-expected to be punished for their botched work in the first episode of this semi-final but they could never have believed they would be so cruelly tantalised. With a 2-0 lead, they were even ahead on aggregate before a hotly disputed goal steered Monaco to a comeback, writes Kevin McCarra at Stamford Bridge.
A place in the final was still deserved for the team coached by the former Chelsea midfielder Didier Deschamps. They have been the more coherent side, and Claudio Ranieri, who will soon be dismissed, is simply left to be proud of the intrigue that Chelsea inspired for a time.
This was a match slow to divulge its intentions. An exuberant and determined Chelsea were ahead on aggregate by the 44th minute after an inspiring goal from Jesper Gronkjaer and a well-constructed second that was finished off by Frank Lampard.
Yet Monaco's latent menace became reality in stoppage time before the interval.
Jérôme Rothen, as he had so often in Monaco, confounded Mario Melchiot before crossing to the back post. With Claudio Cudicini floundering, Fernando Morientes hit the woodwork for the second time. On this occasion, the ball dropped from a post and appeared to bounce off the arm of Hugo Ibarra over the line. Claims of handball went unheeded and Gronkjaer was booked.
Even so, Chelsea's encouragement could not vanish. They had excelled, with Gronkjaer putting them ahead marvellously in the 22nd minute.
Gathering possession near the right corner of the penalty area, he bent a high shot beyond the goalkeeper, Flavio Roma. Lampard then doubled the lead following Melchiot's pass and Eidur Gudjohnsen's through ball.
Chelsea took great credit for an undaunted approach on a night of various sorts of discouragement. There was, for instance, an unhelpfully sepulchral air about the dark cloth draped over the seats in the closed-off corner at the north end of the stadium.
They could not be used because, under UEFA regulations, 2,000 square metres must be provided for television trucks at this stage of the tournament. The vehicles had to be parked in front of exits, rendering a section of the ground unsafe for use.
There were five broadcasters here and Chelsea had no other way of accommodating them. Apart from reducing public access, the embarrassing situation suggested the hosts, for all their imperious wealth, are not quite adapted to football at this level.
Ill-preparedness had assumed an even more galling form in the first leg, when a gauche desire to gamble with some gung-ho substitutions had invited the 3-1 defeat at the Stade Louis II. Here, with a real need for risk, Ranieri adopted a comparatively cautious stance at the start, but his reasoning was not really difficult to follow.
With Lampard sitting slightly deeper than usual as he inherited some of the duties of the suspended Claude Makelele, Chelsea were out to check any advances that Monaco made in search of an away goal. The system worked well at the start, with Ranieri's players so insistent and dominant that the opener from Gronkjaer looked overdue.
The indications of menace were there from the first minute, when Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, preferred to Hernan Crespo despite his grumbling about Ranieri in a Dutch newspaper, had room for a shot. There were signs of sharp link work, too, when Gudjohnsen headed through to Hasselbaink soon after and had Sébastien Squillaci scrambling to cover.
Although Joe Cole hacked cluelessly wide when Geremi's drive was parried by Roma, the midfielder soon deployed the individualism that earned him selection. He spun away from Lucas Bernardi in the 17th minute to feed Hasselbaink for a drive against Roma.
Gudjohnsen should have hit the net in the 33rd minute, after Hasselbaink's cross eluded the goalkeeper, but nodded against the bar. Shortly after, Lampard drew a save from Roma, but the impression of mastery was a partial illusion.
A Morientes drive had deflected off John Terry and on to a post after 25 minutes, and he was also to fire wide when sent clear by Rothen. The eventual goal from Monaco left Chelsea with a challenge only slightly smaller than it had been at the start.
They rued the attempt that Gronkjaer scooped over the bar in the 50th minute from Wayne Bridge's cut-back. A goal then could have fractured Monaco's composure, but they instead assembled an artful goal that killed off Chelsea.
After trademark deftness from Rothen, Morientes completed a one-two with Bernardi before drilling a finish under Cudicini's body. Chelsea required a further three goals to rescue themselves and knew that, despite all the virtuous endeavour, they had failed to atone for their sins in the Stade Louis II.
CHELSEA: Cudicini, Melchiot (Johnson 64), Gallas, Terry, Bridge, Gronkjaer, Lampard, Geremi (Parker 69), Cole, Hasselbaink (Crespo 69), Gudjohnsen. Subs Not Used: Ambrosio, Babayaro, Stanic, Huth. Booked: Cole, Johnson. Goals: Gronkjaer 22, Lampard 44.
MONACO: Roma, Evra, Squillaci (Plasil 45), Rodriguez, Givet, Ibarra, Cisse, Rothen, Bernardi, Morientes (Nonda 81), Giuly (Prso 67). Subs Not Used: Sylva, Oshadogan, Adebayor, El Fakiri. Booked: Evra, Bernardi, Rothen. Goals: Ibarra 45, Morientes 60.
Referee: Anders Frisk (Sweden).
