By Mandeep Sanghera
**Chelsea made harder work than necessary of a second Champions League Group D win as they beat Apoel Nicosia.**Nicolas Anelka steered home a precise angled strike just inside the far post to open the scoring.
Chelsea were in control but nearly paid the price for not adding to their lead when Savvas Poursaetides’ deflected shot was saved by Petr Cech’s legs.
Constantinos Charalambides also headed a far post header agonisingly high late on for Apoel as Chelsea held on.
It ended in unconvincing fashion for the visitors as it seemed they let complacency get the better of them.
They were far superior to their Cypriot rivals but - after the domination of the fist-half - stepped off the gas and almost gave the vociferous home fans an unlikely cause for celebration.
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Apoel’s supporters had been in party mood from the start at the GSP Stadium as they enjoyed their team’s first ever home game in the group stages of the Champions League.
But they had little to cheer as Chelsea slowly started dominating possession and it did not take long for the pressure to create a breakthrough.
The ball was spread wide on the right to Juliano Belletti and he jinked past two defenders before pulling the ball back for Anelka to finish with aplomb.
Chelsea switched off momentarily to give Charalambides a sight of their goal but - under pressure - he sliced a 15-yard shot well wide.
It was a rare chance for the home side whose intentions were not match their executions.
Too often when in promising positions they were guilty of wayward passing and lacked the belief that they could score against their more illustrious opponents.
But Chelsea were failing to turn their dominance into a second and this served as encouragement for Apoel as they started to test their visitors.
Savvas had a shot on goal after Florent Malouda had given the ball away and his effort clipped the inside of the diving John Terry’s leg before being kept out by keeper Cech.
Blues centre-back Ricardo Carvalho also had to crucially block a cross with unmarked striker Nenad Mirosavljevic lurking.
The late header high from Charalambides would have angered Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti but he will be satisfied that his side got back to winning ways after their first defeat of the season to Wigan last Saturday.