LITTLE Gianfranco Zola rose to his full 5ft 6in, puffed out his chest, and restored the hurt pride that had seen him left on the bench and on the verge of World Cup exclusion by powering home a winning goal worthy of a giant of European football.
His fine strike from the edge of the box only seconds after coming on to the pitch as a substitute won Chelsea the Cup-winners' Cup for the second time and made his compatriot, Gianluca Vialli, the first player-manager to have won a European trophy.
Asked 12 months ago whether he would one day become a manager, Vialli had suggested that he was too sensitive to be able to tell players they would be out of the team. Last night, however, the 33-year-old Italian showed he had the bottle by leaving both Zola and striker Mark Hughes sitting on the sidelines and took to the field himself.
Had Chelsea lost, and the sending off Dan Petrescu late on did not help their cause, he might well have been crucified for that very decision. Instead, he will today receive the plaudits for a substitution that turned the match in their favour just as it seemed that they would pay for not taking advantage of a lion's share of possession, although Vialli passed the credit to assistant Graham Rix for deciding on the timing of the switch.
Now, Vialli had a new goal. ''The players were extraordinary tonight, but next season we must start thinking of winning the Premier League,'' he said.
''I am very sorry for the players who were on the bench or in the stands, but everybody has done a good job this season.'' Not that he was ready to give up his own place lightly as he added: ''I am going to be a player-manager again next season.''
Chelsea - De Goey, Petrescu, Leboeuf, Clarke, Poyet, Vialli, Wise, Duberry, Di Matteo, Granville, Flo. Substitutes - Zola, Newton, Myers, Hitchcock, Hughes, Charvet, Morris.
VfB Stuttgart - Wohlfahrt, Berthold, Yakin, Hagner, Haber, Balakov, Bobic, Schneider, Akpoborie, Soldo, Poschner. Substitutes - Endress, Georjevic, Ristic, Ziegler, Becker, Lisztes, Stojkovski.
Referee - S Braschi (Italy)
qThe Champions' Cup final between Juventus and Real Madrid will go ahead in Amsterdam as scheduled on May 20, despite talk by UEFA of moving the match because the two clubs could not obtain landing rights for chartered aircraft.
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