FC Copenhagen 0 Chelsea 2:THE CHAMPIONS League, not for the first time, has provided Carlo Ancelotti with his respite.

What had appeared a potentially awkward tie in freezing Scandinavia has ended offering Chelsea only relief with passage into the quarter-finals now within grasp. Confidence may have been brittle but hindsight would suggest a meeting with Copenhagen, in competitive hibernation for over two months, was actually a Godsend.

Far harder tests than this await, not least against Manchester United next Tuesday, but Chelsea could draw huge encouragement from the ease in which a first-leg victory was achieved. The pre-match rallying cries might have made some impact, but more significant was the return to form demonstrated by Nicolas Anelka and, most significantly, Fernando Torres, across the Londoners’ front line.

Anelka revelled on this occasion, while Torres will be perplexed as to how he has not opened his Chelsea account. Johan Wiland denied him on three occasions, once magnificently with his outstretched right hand. When the Swede was beaten, Oscar Wendt cleared the Spaniard’s effort from the goalline. This was promising; Torres’s moment will surely come soon, but his team’s belief has been partly restored.

Ancelotti had been pining for a response. John Terry’s calls for his team-mates to “man up and take responsibility” in the build-up could have been delivered at any point over the last three months, so slack has this side’s form been since the onset of winter, but further inadequacy could not be tolerated.

The FA Cup and Premier League title have effectively been surrendered, the Londoners’ campaign having now become a pursuit of a first European Cup and a top-four finish at the very least.

This tie was driven from the outset by Chelsea’s desire to make amends. There was a zip to the visitors’ passing in the freezing conditions, the hosts flustered as Chelsea poured at them with the tempo they have craved for months. Enough chances were created in the opening half to have secured the tie, with Copenhagen increasingly reliant upon their goalkeeper, the overworked Wiland, to stave off a drubbing.

Chelsea, with Torres restored to their line-up, at last appeared comfortable in their shape and approach. This was more of a conventional 4-4-2, with Florent Malouda stationed wider than usual and the industrious Ramires offering narrower balance on the opposite flank. Anelka, so prolific in this competition this season, was asked to partner Torres, Ancelotti insistent that the pair were “fresh“: fresher, clearly, than Didier Drogba who had even missed the substitutes’ warm-up to undergo a rub down in the warmth of the dressing room.

The combination selected duly clicked. Torres worked feverishly and had been denied twice by Wiland before the interval as a first goal for his new employers beckoned. There had been slick exchanges between the strikers before Jesper Gronkjaer, a Chelsea player for four years until 2004, attempted to find Claudemir and merely presented Anelka with possession just inside the Danish side’s half. The Frenchman was allowed to glide into the area unchallenged before finishing smartly beyond Wiland.

That was his sixth European goal of the campaign. The Danes’ greatest fear had always been that, while they had been preparing specifically for this fixture since early January, they might be undermined by rustiness. Copenhagen looked very much like a team denied a competitive fixture since early December.

They may have enjoyed possession but there was no guile, or much thrust, to their approach. Martin Vingaard, introduced for the ineffective Cesar Santin, did draw a scrambling first save of the night for Petr Cech though Chelsea’s threat was more incisive.

The visitors were comfortable enough holding off Danish attempts at a revival and capitalised on the break. Frank Lampard conjured a neat reverse pass to send Anelka through. The 30-year-old’s finish was low and true across Wiland and into the net.

Guardian Service

FC COPENHAGEN: Wiland, Pospech, Jorgensen, Antonsson, Wendt (Bengtsson 75), Bolanos, Kvist, Claudemir, Gronkjaer (Zohore 87), Santin (Vingaard 46), Ndoye. Subs not used:Christensen, Kristensen, Hooiveld, Delaney. Booked: Jorgensen, Pospech.

CHELSEA: Cech, Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole, Ramires, Essien, Lampard, Malouda (Zhirkov 84), Anelka (Drogba 73), Torres (Kalou 90). Subs not used:Turnbull, Mikel, Ferreira, McEachran. Booked: Torres, Malouda, Terry.

Referee: Bjorn Kuipers (Netherlands).