Zola’s sheer class shone through as Chelsea swept aside the Third division side with goals from Carlton Cole, Jody Morris and of course Gianfranco’s magnificent brace. The diminutive Italian’s second was probably worth the entrance fee alone.
It seems that Gianfranco could not have picked a better time to re-find the form so prominent in the early months of the season, especially with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink looking certain to miss Chelsea’s vital Premiership clash with Leeds tomorrow night (Tuesday).
Claudio said of Franco: "Franco was wonderful and he scored two great goals, the second one in particular was fantastic.
"He is scoring again which can only be good for the team. He has been out for a bit, has had an injury, but this season in general he was been very good in front of goal.
"Now we have another tough game, a very big game against Leeds, so we will try to recover and then prepare for tomorrow night."
Zola's personal delight was evident for all to see at Gay Meadow - just how broad was that smile as he spoke to the BBC post game?
The Italian said: "I kept my composure and am back in business. I'm very pleased with my game. When you enjoy it you don't feel the fatigue so much, and now we have shown we can play well, week-in, week-out, against big teams and small teams.
"We came here knowing it was going to be a difficult match but we made sure we didn't make any mistakes."
Shrewsbury boss Kevin Ratcliffe said his players had given Zola too much opportunity to work his magic.
He said: "If you give a player like Zola that much time and space, he can do whatever he wants, and he did.
"They are a quality side though, and my only complaint is that perhaps we should have scored a goal.
"Strangely I thought we played much better defensively in the second half, yet we conceded three goals.
"We had a couple of chances to score but I think the difference from the Everton match is they had so much pace and quality at the back and our strikers were never able to get behind them."
So……bring on Stoke!