As a warm-up for tomorrow night's do-or-die Champions League tie against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, it was not exactly ideal. Lazio suffered a double blow when beaten 1-0 by relegation battlers Verona in Serie A on Sunday, not only losing their injured captain and central defender Alessandro Nesta for the Chelsea tie but also apparently waving goodbye to any realistic chances of winning the Italian title.

Following Sunday's defeat, second-placed Lazio trail Juventus by nine points with eight games to go. The Rome club's prospects of winning this year's title now look remote, requiring an improbable Juventus end-of-season collapse.

Tomorrow night's game was always likely to be important, but the combination of poor group results and Sunday's league defeat means that the match has now become "the game of our lives", according to Lazio coach Sven Eriksson. The affable Swede knows better than anyone that his side started out this season with two objectives of equal importance - the Champions League and the Serie A title.

With the latter seemingly well and truly headed the way of Juventus, all of Lazio's eggs are now firmly in the Champions League basket. However, Chelsea, a club unbeaten in 33 home European games since 1958, are a major stumbling block between Lazio and a place in the quarter-finals.

The mathematical realities of Group D are such that Lazio have to win tomorrow night to be sure of qualifying. Lazio come into the game in second place in the group with eight points, two behind leaders Chelsea, who are already qualified, and one point clear of Feyenoord.

If Feyenoord win their final game, away to a demoralised Marseilles, then only a Lazio win against Chelsea will be good enough to qualify Lazio.

Immediately after their emphatic 5-1 win in Marseille last week, Eriksson expressed satisfaction that Lazio were in control of their own fate. After Sunday's unexpected reverse against Verona, he was sounding rather more apprehensive.

"From the moment the referee blew the whistle this afternoon, I've been thinking about Wednesday's game in London, the game of our lives. This game has become hugely important for us and we're going to have to give everything to make sure we qualify for the quarter-finals."

Portuguese defender Fernando Couto is expected to replace Nesta, alongside Yugoslav Sinisa Mihajlovic and full backs Paolo Negro and Giuseppe Pancaro in the four-man Lazio defence.

Eriksson, however, is more worried by his side's state of mind than by injury-enforced team changes. "I'm worried about my team's psychological condition," he says, "if we keep our heads, we can win at Stamford Bridge, but we're going to have to give everything."

If Lazio's prospects are not bright, they are at least fractionally brighter than those of Fiorentina, who tonight must hope that they beat French side Bordeaux at home and that reigning European champions Manchester United beat Valencia in Spain.

Neither result is beyond the bounds of possibility, a point underlined yesterday by Fiorentina's experienced midfielder Angelo Di Livio. "Two seasons ago, I remember playing for Juventus against Manchester United in a final group game when not only did we have to win, but we also depended upon the Greek team Olympiakos beating Rosenborg. I remember that United played a real game against us, gave away nothing, and for that reason I don't see any reason why they will suddenly go soft against Valencia.

"In the end, we beat them only thanks to a late goal from (Filippo) Inzaghi, while at the same time (Predrag) Djordjevic scored a late winner for the Greeks. In football, you can never take anything for granted."

He said it.