Flo inspires Chelsea exhibition

TWO GOALS from Tore Andre Flo and one each from Gianfranco Zola and the substitutes Dennis Wise and Gabriele Ambrosetti emphatically rekindled Chelsea's Champions' League Group H hopes here last night as the London club's trip into "hell" proved an embarrassing experience for the Turkish club Galatasaray.

TWO GOALS from Tore Andre Flo and one each from Gianfranco Zola and the substitutes Dennis Wise and Gabriele Ambrosetti emphatically rekindled Chelsea's Champions' League Group H hopes here last night as the London club's trip into "hell" proved an embarrassing experience for the Turkish club Galatasaray.

Flo struck against the run of play in the 32nd minute, and Chelsea drew all the fire out of Galatasaray in this Istanbul cauldron as Flo pounced again in the 49th minute. Zola added the third five minutes later, Wise joined the party with 11 minutes remaining and Ambrosetti added number five two minutes from time.

Wise, the Chelsea club captain, had been left on the substitutes' bench in a surprise move by their manager, Gianluca Vialli. He was replaced in central midfield by Jody Morris, while Frank Leboeuf took over as captain. Vialli also selected Flo ahead of Chris Sutton, and Graeme Le Saux in front of Dan Petrescu.

Chelsea were subjected to a hostile reception - even though the Chelsea chairman, Ken Bates, did earn a round of applause when he presented a cheque to the Turkish earthquake disaster fund. Riot police still had to hold their shields aloft to protect the players as they ran out to a cacophony of abusive chants.

Chelsea were outplayed for most of the opening 45 minutes but still managed to silence the vociferous home crowd when Flo struck on the counter-attack.

Zola sliced open the home side's defence by lofting a through-ball into the path of Flo, who was able to bear down on goal as Mehmet Bolukbasi, a stand-in for Claudio Taffarel - who was sent off at Stamford Bridge - hesitated on his line. Flo, who had not scored since the opening day of the season, showed composure as he turned inside Gheorghe Popescu and threaded his shot inside the far post.

The deafening verbal assault from the crowd resumed after the interval, as did Galatasaray's attempts to draw level, but both lasted just four minutes before Flo struck for a second time. Zola was the creator again, picking out Gustavo Poyet at the far post, where the Uruguayan did well to head the ball back across goal. Flo controlled the ball with his chest and turned to strike a volley into the far corner.

Galatasaray were rocked on their heels - and worse was to follow when Zola beat the offside trap to shimmy past goalkeeper Mehmet and roll the ball into an empty net. Wise and Ambrosetti then completed a perfect night.

Chelsea had soon come under pressure, and full-back Albert Ferrer had to nip in to deny Okan Buruk. Gheorghe Hagi struck the outside of the post with a curling free-kick, and the goalkeeper Ed De Goey produced a superb diving save to tip a header from Hakan Sukur onto the crossbar.

Galatasaray: Mehmet Bolukbasi; Popescu, Emre Belozoglu, Okan Buruk, Hagi, Fatih Akyel, Tugay Kerimoglu, Hakan Unsal, Capone, Hakan Sukur, Arif Erdem. Substitutes: Kerem Inan (gk), Saffet Akyuz, Ahmet Yildirim, Umit Davala, Hasan Sas Gokhan, Marcio, Ergun Penbe.

Chelsea: De Goey; Babayaro, Leboeuf, Desailly, Deschamps, Poyet, Le Saux, Ferrer, Flo, Morris, Zola. Substitutes: Cudicini (gk), Petrescu, Hogh, Sutton, Wise, Ambrosetti, Lambourde.

Referee: V M Melo Pereira (Portugal).