Group EMiddlesbrough 2 Lazio 0 On arguably the most glamorous night in Middlesbrough's history Steve McClaren's side turned on the style with a convincing, imaginative display that all but guarantees their presence when the group stage evolves into knock-out after Christmas.

Boudewijn Zenden got both goals against a Lazio team that included Paolo Di Canio but which did little to suggest it had escaped from the "coma" into which its new president Claudio Lotito said it had fallen. Had Middlesbrough's finishing matched the dash of their approach play, particularly in the opening half hour, Lazio would have been thumped.

The atmosphere was expectant from the beginning and the anticipation was repaid quickly. Passing the ball neatly, Lazio had actually worried Middlesbrough before Zenden struck. Antonio Filippini drove a low, diagonal shot close in the seventh minute and Di Canio forced Mark Schwarzer into action with a 16th-minute shot from longer range.

But Middlesbrough were also showing signs of tight-knit play themselves. A few seconds after that Di Canio shot, Chris Riggott sprayed the ball left from the back to Stewart Downing. He surged down his flank and, reaching the area, swivelled and crossed. Lazio's clearance was scuffed to the edge of the box where Zenden met it on the volley. The Dutchman's strike was clean, powerful and sped past Fabrizio Casazza into the bottom corner.

There then began something akin to a red siege. Mark Viduka produced a beautiful overhead kick to ripple the netting and Downing and Franck Queudrue both had worthwhile efforts. There were also a couple of goalmouth scrambles in the Italians' box, but if there was a criticism of Middlesbrough's creative pressure it was at times too intricate.

It was both refreshing and dangerous then, when Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Ray Parlour chose to shoot fiercely and just over from distance rather than dab the ball around again. Although Middlesbrough were composed in their lead, there were still the odd lapses, two from George Boateng that would have been punished by a better team than Lazio.

A second goal felt necessary, therefore, to emphasise Middlesbrough's superiority, and Viduka almost provided it with a typically slick turn and improvised poke six minutes after the break.

On the left wing there was always the Downing option, too. The 20 year-old had run at Lazio all night and he continued to do so. Downing raised the Riverside volume with a right-foot drive on 56 minutes. Four minutes later Fernando Couto managed to get back to clear a Downing lob over Casazza.

If it sounds like one-way traffic, it was, in the main. However, Lazio were prepared to break when they could. But with 20 minutes left any Lazio optimism vanished.

Hasselbaink rocked Casazza back on his heels with a 25-yard piledriver and Boro kept at it from the corner. Eventually it came short to Downing on the right. With his left he floated the ball to the far post, where Zenden stole in unmarked to nod the ball down and in from six yards.

MIDDLESBROUGH: Schwarzer, McMahon, Southgate, Riggott, Queudrue, Parlour, Boateng, Zenden, Downing, Hasselbaink (Job 81), Viduka. Subs not used: Nash, Cooper, Doriva, Morrison, Wilson, Davies. Goals: Zenden 16, 71.

LAZIO: Casazza, Oddo, Oscar Lopez, Couto, Seric, Antonio Filippini, Dabo, Giannichedda (Melara 14), Cesar (Manfredini 64), Di Canio, Delgado (Rocchi 50). Subs not used: De Angelis, Pandev, Sannibale, Torroni.

Referee: Yuri Baskakov (Russia).