Sport 29-09-2000 Chelsea Bow Out Of UEFA Cup who: Chelsea what: Out of UEFA Cup after 2-0 defeat by minnows where: Zurich when: Last night snippet: "Welcome to the wacky world of Chelsea, Claudio Ranieri," says Alyson Rudd in The Times after the Blues bowed out of the UEFA Cup with a humiliating 2-0 away defeat to St Gallen, a team The Mirror calls "the Bradford City of The Swiss league". "Ranieri could not believe his team`s abysmal defending as they surrendered a 1-0 first-leg lead over the Swiss minnows," says Mark Irwin in The Sun. "Now Ranieri, the tactical genius brought in to build on the legacy of Gianluca Vialli, is back to square one after being KO`d by a side who were rated 600-1 rank outsiders to win the trophy." The Swiss champions "sliced open Chelsea`s defence time and again throughout the first 25 minutes," says Martin Thorpe in The Guardian. Sascha Muller and Charles Amoah scored twice for St Gallen in the first half and - adding injury to insult - Chelsea`s Italian midfield star Roberto Di Matteo suffered a fracture to his leg in a clash with defender Daniel Imhof which will leave him out of action for months. "I will not reveal what I said to the players in the dressing-room," said an angry Ranieri afterwards. "But it will be very hard to lift the spirit at the club after this result." [... more]

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