Chelsea booked their place in the group phase of the Champions League with a 3-0 victory over MSK Zilina and completed the signing of Hernan Crespo in a double celebration at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.
New defensive signing Glen Johnson headed Chelsea into a 32nd-minute lead, Robert Huth nodded another in the 67th and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink lashed in a third as Chelsea secured a comfortable 5-0 aggregate win in the third qualifying round.
"It was important to win. We won and scored some good goals but it was very important for the new Chelsea that we reached the Champions League," Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri told reporters.
As if to further emphasise the huge gulf in class and aspirations between the clubs Chelsea paraded new signing Crespo at halftime. The Argentine striker has joined in a 16.8 million pound four-year deal from Inter Milan.
The scoreline could have been even more convincing but Eidur Gudjohnsen hit a post with only goalkeeper Branislav Rzeszoto to beat while a 25-metre free kick from Huth appeared to cross the line after hitting the crossbar, but no goal was given.
Even without new signings like midfielders Juan Sebastian Veron and Damien Duff and defender Wayne Bridge Chelsea were vastly superior to the Slovaks in every position.
"We played the best we could but we are not comparable with Chelsea," said MSK coach Milan Lesicky. "I'm sure they will be one of the best teams in the world," he said.
There was an air of inevitability about the outcome from the start even though it took Chelsea more than 30 minutes to score.
The opening goal came when Johnson headed home a Frank Lampard free kick for the first senior goal of his career.
Any fears Chelsea might have had of repeating previous shock European exits were quickly ended as former Joe Cole and Lampard quickly established complete mastery in midfield while MFK did not test Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini once.
The late goals from Huth and Hasselbaink added respectability to the scoreline.
The signing of Crespo took the west London club's spending to nearly 100 million pounds since Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich took over the club at the start of July.
