wright pegs chelsea back published: thursday 19 september 2002, 22.15cet chelsea fc 2-1 viking fk last-minute away goal from ben wright gives viking hope.
chelsea fc 2-1 viking fk ben wright, who departed english football for norway's viking fk last year, returned to score a last-minute away goal to give his side a chance of overcoming chelsea fc in the uefa cup first round.
legend mourned it was no more than viking deserved after giving the london side a tough test at stamford bridge, where a minute's silence was observed for former chelsea striker ian hutchinson, who died today aged 54.
early chances both sides had chances in the opening minutes, chelsea's jesper gronkjær shooting just wide after only 75 seconds and trygve nygaard forcing home goalkeeper carlo cudicini to make a great save soon afterwards. after both sides had again gone close, jimmy floyd hasselbaink opened the scoring three minutes from the break from gronkjær's cross.
de lucas doubles lead hasselbaink was denied by a point-blank save from frode olsen eleven minutes into the second-half, but the viking goalkeeper was beaten for a second time not long afterwards. enrique de lucas, a summer signing from rcd espanyol, scored his first goal for chelsea as he lobbed olsen on 68 minutes after a great ball from his own half by jody morris.
dream for wright but after hasselbaink had headed wide from de lucas's cross three minutes later, chelsea began to sit back on their lead and were made to pay when substitute wright, formerly with bristol city fc, scored. he admitted afterwards: "to get on was brilliant, clearly the highlight of my career."
'in with a chance' viking coach benny lennartsson said of the game: "we are now in with a chance. gianfranco zola created a lot of problems for us, but i believe their second goal was offside."
'a bad result' his opposite number claudio ranieri admitted: "clearly this is a bad result. we made a lot of mistakes. viking played very deeply in numbers and they put up two walls in front of their goalkeeper."
