15/09/1999 AC Milan 0 Chelsea 0 On a night of conflicting emotions at Stamford Bridge, with pride mixed in equal measure with frustration, Chelsea outplayed one of the superpowers of world football but failed to deliver the knockout blow. Boss Gianluca Vialli can certainly be proud of the way his players stood up to the biggest test of their resurgence as a club over the past few years on their Champions League debut. Italian champions AC Milan may have arrived with the glittering tradition of 16 domestic titles and five European Cups behind them but Chelsea impudently took them on from the first whistle. Frenchmen Marcel Desailly and Didier Deschamps were supreme as they led by example and Gianfranco Zola weaved his magic up front to belie his 33 years and his exclusion from the Italian national side. But however hard they tried, Chelsea's perennial Achilles heel of their finishing let them down again and with Zola hitting the post and keeper Christian Abbiati in superb form, they failed to make their possession count. And so the final whistle blew on the third consecutive goalless draw involving an English side in the Champions' League this season. But while Vialli's classes in finishing must continue at the training ground, Chelsea at least proved they could hold their own with the cream of Europe. Drawing at home to Milan is hardly a disgrace, especially at the start of a six-match qualifying phase, and whether Chelsea make it through to the next stage was always likely to depend more on their results against Galatasaray and Hertha Berlin. Having waited 44 years to take part in the competition - after being persuaded to opt out in the inaugural year - Chelsea were determined to make up for lost time from the start. While the two World Cup winners Desailly and Deschamps provided the platform, Zola was pulling the strings ahead of them, jinking and twisting his way past opponents to give even the likes of Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta a constant headache. In the Premiership, Chelsea can often manage to survive a lack of clinical finishing but at this level, they were made to pay for their wastefulness. Zola was the first to take aim, firing a 30-yard effort just wide before then putting Dan Petrescu clear only for Maldini to recover magnificently to put the Romanian off his shot. Milan may have arrived with attacking intentions, playing their customary three-strong strikeforce of Leonardo, Oliver Bierhoff and Andriy Shevchenko in the absence of George Weah through suspension. But they were being harried and hustled out of their stride and it was 20 minutes before Shevchenko had his first attempt at goal, a shot straight into the arms of Ed de Goey, while Bierhoff was booked for complaining of a lack of protection. The game was flowing remorselessly from end to end at this stage, with Tore Andre Flo - preferred to Chris Sutton - flashing a header just over and Shevchenko again testing out de Goey. However, Chelsea still held the advantage as they flooded forwards in wave after wave of attacks, with even full-back Albert Ferrer taking men on through the middle while Zola continued to weave his magic. The Italian curled a free-kick just over the bar and then twisted through at least 360 degrees before planting a cross straight onto Flo's head only for the Norwegian to miss the target. The interval upset Chelsea's rhythm though, allowing Milan to regroup, and the Italian side slowly began to impose themselves on the game, with Demetrio Albertini starting to pull the strings in central midfield. Leboeuf and Desailly could not afford a moment's lapse of concentration as they found themselves pushed onto the back foot yet if Chelsea's goalscoring can be questioned, their resilience cannot. But then came the moment Chelsea had been waiting for. Petrescu played the ball back to Zola as the Italian scampered into the penalty box, he held off his marker and placed his shot just wide of keeper Christian Abbiati. At first, the ball looked to be going in but it rolled agonisingly against the far post and rebounded into the arms of the relieved Abbiati who then pulled off a wonderful reaction save to deny the Italian again moments later when he twisted onto a loose clearance. Poyet felt he was impeded in going for a cross but it was merely wishful thinking as yet another chance went begging and the Uruguayan was soon replaced by Graeme Le Saux. Leboeuf also came off, although for a more worrying reason, after injuring his shoulder in a 50-50 tackle with Thomas Helveg. And just a minute after replacement Jes Hogh had taken his place, Chelsea had an escape of their own as Leonardo hit an outrageous 30-yard volley which had De Goey completely beaten but thudded against the crossbar. Vialli's final throw of the dice was to throw on Sutton for Flo with six minutes left but Dennis Wise promptly headed straight at Abbiati and the keeper also flung himself to deny Petrescu's rasping drive after a slip by Guly. In the dying minutes, Zola produced an outrageous dummy which fooled the entire Milan defence. The problem was, it bamboozled his team-mates as well. It was just that kind of night.