LONDON, 7 May 2004 — Chelsea’s dreams of Champions League glory were shattered here on Wednesday as Monaco battled back from two goals down to book their place in the final for the first time in their history.

A 2-2 draw on the night put Monaco into a final clash with FC Porto 5-3 on aggregate but the margin between triumph and failure was much smaller than those figures suggest.

Briefly, after Frank Lampard had added to Jesper Gronkjaer’s long-range opener, Chelsea looked as if they could defy the odds and overturn their 3-1 deficit from the first leg. But the Blues hearts were broken when Monaco pulled a goal back in controversial circumstances in first-half stoppage time through Hugo Ibarra, on loan from Porto, and Fernando Morientes ended the contest with a a clinically-taken second goal on the hour mark. Monaco coach Didier Deschamps, who spent a season at Chelsea towards the end of his glorious playing career, said he had a simple message for his team at half-time.

Chelsea’s embattled coach Claudio Ranieri said it was a case of letting the match slip away from them. Porto coach Jose Mourinho, tipped to take over from Ranieri at Stamford Bridge in the summer, watched the drama unfold impassively from the stands.

Chelsea had set the tone for a high-tempo encounter right from the opening minute, when Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink hustled Sebastien Squillaci off the ball and gave Flavio Roma his first examination of what was to prove a testing night. Monaco’s Italian goalkeeper was unable to hold Geremi’s fierce drive just after the quarter hour mark and was relieved to see Joe Cole snatch at the rebound and slice his shot wide.

Cole made amends almost immediately with an exquisite turn and pass that put Hasselbaink into the box.

Al-Ahli Send Al-Nasr Packing

Al-Ahli qualified as the fourth team in the King Fahd Soccer Tournament second phase after winning against Al-Nasr 2-1 in Jeddah on Wednesday, writes Mahmoud Ahmad. At the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here, Nasr needed to win or at least draw the match for they had an easy outing against Al-Wehda of Makkah. Ahli had to win to qualify while also blocking Nasr out of competition. Ahli plays Ittihad in their last match of the league.

Nasr scored in the 30th minuet via a nice header from Abdul Aziz Al-Janobi. Ahli found the Nasr team reverting to defense and found the Yellow barrier difficult to breach in the first half that ended 1-0. In the second half, Ahli brought on striker Talal Al-Meshal, who changed the course of the match. Talal assisted in the first goal, relaying a nice pass to Rogerio, who struck true in the 64th minute.

The winner came at the end of injury time when Talal Al-Meshal was on target for the second goal, that also nixed Nasr’s hopes of advancing.

After the result of this match, Al-Ittihad is in first place with 55 points, Al-Shabab 2nd with 39 points, Al-Hilal 3rd with 37 points, Al-Ahli 4th with 37 points, Nasr 5th with 33 points, Al-Ittifaq 6th with 32 points, Al-Wehda 7th with 24 points, Al-Taie 8th with 24 points, Al-Qadisiya 9th with 23 points, Al-Riyadh 10th with 22 points, Al-Shoala 11th with 17 points and Al-Khaleej 12th with 11 points.

The last two teams in ladder will be relegated to First Division competition next season while the top two teams in the First Division competition win promotion to King Fahd Cup Tournament.