UNDATED. Apr 3: Chelsea’s hopes of reaching the European Cup Winners' Cup final ■ suffered a major body blow here on Thursday night, as they slumped to a 1-0 defeat to Vicenza, reports AFP. Lamberto Zauli lashed home Vicenza's 16th minute winner and Chelsea did well to limit damage for the semifinal second leg at Stamford Bridge in a fortnight's time.

Gianluca Vialli's side may have lifted the League Cup on Sunday, but they made no impression on the Italian club's defence and were lucky not lose by a bigger margin, as Zauli arid Pasquale Luiso carved up the Blues' back four.

Vialli. who will be without Italian midfielder Roberto Di Matteo for the second leg. defended his men despite their mistakes.

"I think they played well, especially for the first 25 minutes, when I think we were in control." he said. "But it was a trap. They wanted us to go forward. they did it well and we paid heavily for that."

Vicenza coach Francesco Guidolin was cautiously optimistic for the club, who have never got past the first round in a European competition before, let alone reach a final.

"I'm satisfied with the performance." he said. Tonight we were up against one of the best sides in Europe, and that makes the result even more important."

Chelsea seized the initiative in the opening minutes and after weak efforts from both Vialli and Gianfranco Zola it was the latter who fired the first shot in anger, a fierce near-post drive from the edge of the area into the side netting.

Zauli gave Ed de Goey a fright in the 13th minute with a near-post header which the Chelsea goalkeeper did well to palm away.

But the tall Italian playmaker gave the Dutchman an even bigger fright three minutes later when he muscled his way into the left side of the Chelsea area and smacked a low shot in the right hand comer of the net.

It could have been 2-0 to the home side in the 24th minute, when Vialli gave away possession just outside the Vicenza area and Gabriele Ambrosetti sprinted the length of the pitch before succumbing to Michael Duberry's challenge.

Ambrosetti followed up barely a minute later with a free-kick into the Chelsea area which needed two desperate clearances, while Marco Schenardi was the next to test the Chelsea defence.

De Goey punched clear his free-kick at full stretch but it needed Vialli to get in the way of Fabric Viviani's crashing volley.

A much weaker 38th minute volley was all Zola could manage as Chelsea broke away in search of an equaliser. It was a sad. but fair reflection of Chelsea's poor performance.

There was no creativity in midfield and no bite up front as Chelsea's Italian contingent, including Di Matteo, struggled with their compatriot defenders and a slippery match after a pre-match downpour.

In the German city of Stuttgart, VFB defeated Russian side Lokomotive Moscow 2-1 in their semifinal first leg encounter.