John Terry came to Chelsea's rescue on Wednesday when he powered home a 77th-minute header to secure a 1-0 home win over a dogged AS Roma in a tight Champions League Group A game.

- Images from Wednesday's matches

The captain rose to firmly glance in a Frank Lampard [Images] corner and put the Londoners in command of the group on seven points from three games. Cluj have four with Roma and Bordeaux both on three.

Until the goal a stubborn 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 the first half was when Lampard clipped the angle of the bar and post with a 20-metre effort after 23 minutes.

Neither keeper was required to make anything but routine stops until Doni had to get down to smother a Salomon Kalou header after an hour.

The halftime introduction of Juliano Belletti for the ineffective Florent Malouda added some urgency to Chelsea's build-up but the crowd were getting edgy as the click ticked on.

Then Terry, who has been struggling with a back injury in recent weeks, produced another determined run to secure a goal that should ease last season's runners-up into the knockout phase.