John Terry came to Chelsea's rescue on Wednesday when he powered in a 77th-minute header to secure a 1-0 Champions League win over dogged AS Roma and put the Londoners firmly on course for the knockout phase.
The captain rose to glance in a Frank Lampard corner and put the Londoners in command in Group A on seven points from three games. Cluj have four with Roma and Bordeaux both on three.
Until the goal Roma, who had been thrashed 4-0 by Inter Milan in Serie A at the weekend, held out with few problems against a team who had been scoring for fun in the Premier League.
The nearest either side came to a goal in a ragged first half was when Lampard clipped the angle of the bar and post with a 20-metre effort after 23 minutes, though a great tackle by Terry denied Matteo Brighi a shot on goal after he had been cleverly slipped through by Francesco Totti.
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Roma were busy, worked hard to close down the midfield and looked to occasionally break but their final ball was too often loose and they failed to threaten Petr Cech in the entire 90 minutes.
Chelsea also struggled to reproduce their enterprising football of recent weeks and it looked ever-more likely that they would need a set-piece to break through.
It duly worked out that way as Terry, who has been struggling with a back injury in recent weeks, produced another determined run to secure a win that should make the return game in Roma a much less pressurised trip for last season's runners-up.
Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said he was more than happy with the result despite the goalrush drying up.
"I told the players beforehand that this would be a tactical game. If we pressured this team and made one or two mistakes then maybe we would lose," he told a news conference.
"I told them to stay calm. Sometimes 1-0 is more important than 5-0 -- you have to respect the quality of the opposition.
"They didn't come just to defend, they tried to play," he said. "They don't have one striker in the box, they have five or six players arriving and it's difficult to control."
Scolari said he had been an admirer of Terry's aerial ability for a long time.
"When I was Portugal coach and we played England I was always afraid when Terry came into my area and warned my players that he was decisive and if he got a touch, it was dangerous," he said.
"Now I'm here I say to him I want the same."
Despite the defeat, coach Luciano Spalletti felt Roma's performance could kick-start his team's season, which has started so poorly.
"We showed a great attitude and good spirit and this is something we need to carry forward so we can get back to the way Roma play," he said.
"Sometimes tonight we tried to press forward too much but it certainly sets the tone for what we need to do.
"The only way Chelsea were going to score was a set piece, or if they created something from nothing. I think we deserved more out of the game and our performance should give us confidence for the home match against them."
Of his team's qualification prospects, he said: "Chelsea are a bit ahead but there is only one point between the other three teams and with three games left so I'd say our chances are pretty much the same as they were before this match."