"Lazio scored with their first shot, which was bad for us, but in the second half I told my players to stay calm and keep going," Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri said. "It was a very, very brilliant reaction."
Karel Poborsky scored in the 85th minute as Sparta Prague beat Besiktas 2-1 in the other Group G encounter.
"I think I didn't play particularly well, but we played very well as a team," said Poborsky, a former Man United player.
Chelsea tops Group G with six points, two more than Sparta Prague and Lazio.
"Our group is even, and it will go down to the end," Lazio coach Roberto Mancini said. "After the first game I said that Chelsea and Lazio would qualify without problems. It won't be so easy."
On Tuesday, Group B favorites Inter Milan and Arsenal both lost away. Inter was beaten 3-0 by Lokomotiv Moscow, and the Gunners were defeated 2-1 by Dynamo Kiev. Inter, which fired coach Hector Cuper over the weekend, and Kiev both have six points, while Moscow has four. Arsenal has one.
German powerhouse Bayern Munich leads Group A with five points following a 1-1 draw with Lyon, which has four points along with Anderlecht. Celtic has three. Anderlecht beat Celtic 1-0 at home, despite having a player sent off in the first half.
Juventus won 4-2 win over Real Sociedad. In the other Group D game Tuesday, Galatasaray collected its first points with a 1-0 win over Olympiakos. Juventus has nine points, Sociedad six, Galatasaray three and Olympiakos one.
Deportivo de La Coruna took a one-point lead in Group C after downing Monaco 1-0. PSV Eindhoven shut out AEK Athens 1-0. Deportivo has seven points, Monaco six, PSV three and AEK one.
The fourth rotation of games is scheduled for Nov. 4 and 5.
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