Football: Chelsea are inspired by Flo double

Real Betis 1 Chelsea

Vialli abandoned his preferred 4-3-3 formation in favour of 4-4-2 and sat on the bench alongside Mark Hughes while Tore Andre Flo shouldered the weight up front. The towering Norwegian rewarded the player-manager with two goals that settled the match in the opening 12 minutes and put Chelsea in a powerful position for the return leg at Stamford Bridge in two weeks' time.

Chelsea were themselves caught cold in the second half, with Alfonso, the Spanish international striker, pulled a goal back with a header 43 seconds after the restart.

Betis could not find an equaliser, thanks largely to the form of Ed de Goey in the Chelsea, but Vialli will be disappointed that, despite his warning to his players to keep cool, four were booked, including Gianfranco Zola for an alleged dive.

Inevitably, as tackles started to flow in the second half, Dennis Wise was among the bookings, a fifth successive caution for the man who must face the Football Association this month over his disciplinary record. Mark Nicholls was booked within seconds of replacing Zola with 10 minutes remaining and Frank Sinclair, playing in place of the unfit Graeme Le Saux, was the other player cautioned. None of the four will miss the return game, which is unlikely to have such a spectacular start.

No sooner had De Goey dived on an under-hit 15-yard drive by the Nigerian Finidi George, than Flo was breaking at the other end on to a short pass by Roberto Di Matteo. As the Betis defenders backed off, he swept into the penalty area from the right and drilled a low shot past Antoni Prats and into the net off the far post.

The 3,000-plus Chelsea fans, most of them penned into one corner of the ground, were still coming to terms with the shock of the Chelsea system and its early success when, three minutes later, they celebration was redoubled. Flo collected a short pass from Dan Petrescu, cleverly cut across in front of goal and slipped his shot under Prats.

The job was done already. Betis were busy and eager in attack, but ran into a solid Chelsea rearguard in which Frank Leboeuf was outstanding, apart from his lapse at the start of the second half. He gave Alfonso the room to reach a cross from the substitute Luis Marquez and De Goey was beaten by his header.

Apart from that, Chelsea's tackling was crisp and decisive until the late stages and De Goey dealt well with everything that came at him, including two curling efforts from the free-kick specialist Robert Jarni.

Real Betis: Prats; Merino, Alexis, Canas (Oli, 66), Jarni, Solozabal, Olias, Vidakovic (Marquez, 44), Fernando, Alfonso, Finidi.

Chelsea: De Goey; Petrescu, Leboeuf, Duberry, Clarke, Sinclair, Wise, Di Matteo, Newton, Flo (M Hughes, 85), Zola (Nicholls, 79).

Referee: A Ouzounov (Bulgaria).