FJORD FIESTA; Blow me! Even Vialli runs out of breath in Chelsea's 7-1 Viking romp.

Chelsea 7 Tromso 1

(Chelsea win 9-4 on aggregate)

Gianluca Vialli led Chelsea's Arctic explorers on a seven-goal demolition of Tromso's abominable snowmen last night.

Hat-trick hero Vialli scored twice in a Norwegian blizzard two weeks ago, but he went one better in this Blues meltdown.

And Chelsea player-boss Ruud Gullit tipped Vialli for an Italy World Cup recall after watching his side bury a stream of Tromso taunts in an avalanche of goals.

Gullit said: "We had a point to prove tonight. This time you saw the real Chelsea and the real Tromso.

"Everyone is delighted for Luca. He's made himself a serious candidate again for the Italian national squad because of the way he's been playing lately.

"It was important to get this tie out of the way because now we can put Europe to one side until next March and focus entirely on the Premier League and domestic cups."

Vialli, desperate to score in front of his home fans after eight months hitting the target only on his travels, reduced ten-man Tromso to a pile of Norse manure.

He said: "I can sympathise with Italian coach Cesare Maldini because he has so many top quality strikers to choose from. If he needed my help, of course I would not dream of turning him down."

Tromso coach Haakan Sandberg said: "Was it 7-1? I lost count. But we lost our big chance to knock Chelsea out of Europe in the first leg, when we should have beaten them by two or three clear goals."

As fireworks crackled in the sky around Stamford Bridge, Chelsea served up a fjord fiesta - their biggest landslide in Europe since they walloped Jeunesse of Luxembourg 21-0 on aggregate 26 years ago.

Poor old Tromso, who had Johnny Hansen sent off harshly after 54 minutes, could at least tune in to the weather in Norwegian on Live TV last night before their flight home this morning. And, yes, it was snowing in Tromso.