Chelsea cruised into the last 16 stage of the Champions League with straightforward 4-1 defeat of FC Spartak Moskva at Stamford Bridge tonight.
Four second half goals made light work of a dismal first half where it looked as if neither side actually wanted to progress.
Two goals from Serbian centre-back Branislav Ivanovic, a penalty from Didier Drogba and an opener from Nicolas Anelka left the Russians with only a long and miserable journey home to thionk about.
A late strike from substitute Nikita Bazhenov, when already 3-0 down was all the compensation the visitors could muster.
Is the first half worth commenting on?
Well there was fine curling effort from Anelka on 15 minutes.
Drogba was all strength and bluster as he had a couple of efforts saved.
Moskva’s midfield general Alex had an excellent left-footer from 20 yards well saved by Petr Cech on 33 minutes and five minute from the break saw Dmitri Kombarov shot just over.
But the second half was a different affair and the blues took the lead with four minutes when Salomon Kalou and Anelka combined well leaving the Frenchman the difficult task of lifting the ball over goalkeeper Andriy Dykan from and acute angle look easy.
The home side relaxed in to their confident stride after that and the goals came at regular intervals.
Drogba was hauled down by Evgeni Makeev in the area and the Ivory Coast striker powered home a fierce right footer on 61 minutes to double the lead.
Ivanovic got the first of his brace five minutes later heading home a Drogba right-sided free-kick.
The Russians goal one back with five minutes remaining.
Sleepy defending allowed Welliton, on the right to send a low ball across the six-yard box and up popped Bazhenov to slide home.
Chelsea sent the majority 40, 447 crowd home happy deep into injury time with number four.
Again Ivanovic was cool and collected and he turned and rammed home a right-footer from just inside the away side’s penalty area.
Chelsea
01 Cech 02 Ivanovic 03 A Cole 19 Ferreira 33 Alex 07 Ramires 12 Mikel yellow card (McEachran 68) 18 Zhirkov 11 Drogba (Sturridge 76) 21 Kalou 39 Anelka (Kakuta 76)
Substitutes
22 Turnbull, 26 Terry, 38 Van Aanholt, 43 Bruma, 46 McEachran, 23 Sturridge, 44 Kakuta
Spartak Moskva
81 Andrei Dikan, 05 Shyeshukov (Drincic 67), 17 Suchy, 18 Ivanovyellow card, 19 Pareja, 07 Ibson, 12 Alex (Kozlov 68), 16 Makeev, 64 McGeady (Bazhenov 79)
99 Kombarov yellow card, 11 Welliton
Substitutes: 56 Belenov, 06 Sabitov, 08 Drincic, 26 Khodyrev, 27 Ananidze, 21 Bazhenov, 49 Kozlov