Chelsea's new multi-million pound team look set for Champions League progress after securing a 2-0 first-leg win in their third round qualifying match against Slovakia's MSK Zilina on Wednesday.

Gudjohnsen celebrates goal with Veron [Reuters]

The Londoners, starting with five new faces from the 74 million-pounds' worth ($118.7 million) of talent bought since the arrival of Roman Abramovich six weeks ago, avoided any repeat of their recent UEFA Cup embarrassments by comfortably easing past the Slovakian champions.

Chelsea had been knocked out of the secondary competition by Viking Stavanger, Hapoel Tel Aviv and St Gallen in the last three seasons but now look ready to take their place among Europe's elite in the 32-team group stage.

After a cautious start, Icelandic international striker Eidur Gudjohnsen slid in the opening goal three minutes before halftime.

Chelsea, looking better as the match progressed, got the second 14 minutes from time when defender Michael Drahno, under pressure from Gudjohnsen, steered the ball into his own net 14 minutes from time.

Midfielder Damien Duff, the most expensive of the new signings at 17 million pounds from Blackburn Rovers, was pick of the bunch as Chelsea made most of the running against the defensively-minded hosts.

Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri said he was pleased with how his new acquisitions performed and had particular praise for Duff: "He was the best. Every ball that he played was very dangerous," the Italian said of his Irish international.

Damien Duff [Reuters]

"It was very important for us to win. We knew Zilina very well. We knew that they had very good organisation and deep defence.

"We won tonight because my players were very very focused on this match," added Ranieri, whose side start their premier league campaign at Liverpool on Sunday."

Dejected Zilina coach Milan Lesicky said his team had expected to be well beaten. "They just didn't give us a chance from the start," he said.

"Their victory was expected. The club is one of the best in the world. It was an uneven fight, the big against the small.

"Our players were very brave. I was very happy about their play and they fought to the extent of their abilities."

Ranieri, who picked Mikael Forssell and left striker Jimmy Hasselbaink on the bench, played down suggestions that there might be unrest in his squad as so many internationals would not be playing regularly.

"I had to choose and I chose another two strikers with different qualities than Jimmy," Ranieri said.

Dutch international Hasselbaink responded by saying" "I am not interested in any other club, I am going to stay and fight for my place here."

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