Samuel Eto'o and Gary Cahill ensured that Chelsea would not have one of their nervy European nights at Stamford Bridge.
Each scored a goal in the first half to smooth the Londoners' passage into the quarter-finals of this season's Champions League - a 2-0 win against Turkish side Galatasaray added to their 1-1 first leg result.
The talk before that game was all about ex-Blue Didier Drogba and the Chelsea faithful showed their gratitude for his trophy-laden eight years service. He failed to score. In truth he was well shackled by Cahill and John Terry, that his presence on the field was mostly as a peripheral character.
But showman to the end, he was last off the pitch, soaking up the adoration from the stands.
He was overshadowed by Chelsea veteran Frank Lampard who was just edged out as man of the match by fellow midfielder Eden Hazard.
The Blues will face a tougher tests than this if they are to emulate their glorious night in Munich two years ago when they lifted the trophy with the big ears. That night Drogba was the hero, tonight it was the future of Chelsea, Hazard who stole the show.
An early clatter on Oscar by Felipe Melo signalled the Turkish side's intent -be robust and try to put the Blues under pressure.
But they failed to take into account Samuel Eto'o on four minutes, and the Cameroon striker silenced the thousands of Turkish fans in The Shed stand, as he collected a perfect short pass from Oscar on the edge of the visitors' penalty area. He took one touch before smacking a low, right-footer across the path of Fernamdo Muslera. The goalkeeper could not halt the direction of the ball and it nestled in the bottom right-hand corner of his net.
The early breakthrough put Chelsea ahead 2-1 in this first round knockout stage of the Champions League.
A speculative overhead kick from ex-Chelsea legend Didier Drogba on 14 minutes was extravagant. And it got what it deserved - nothing as it sailed high over Petr Cech's crossbar.
Melo was yellow carded for another clumsy challenge on Oscar on 19 minutes.
Chelsea could have doubled their lead two minutes later when a Frank Lampard inspired move, which also involved Oscar and Eden Hazard almost saw Lampard finish of a brilliant counter-attack. Unfortunately for the England man, his final touch was not strong or accurate enough to trouble Muslera.
A passage of play then ensued where just about every player, from both sides decided that they would hit the ground, in the hope that their immediate opponent would be given a yellow card.
While only 1-0 to the Blues, they could always find themselves in trouble with a set piece. Galatasaray, when they decided to play football, looked fluid in their movement. But whenever they came up against Hazard, they had no answer and they had to foul him. On one such occasion on 32 minutes, the resultant free-kick, on the left, was taken by Lampard. His sweet, right-footed curler was met beautifully on the volley by in-running John Terry, but the zipper just inched over the Turkish crossbar.
On 37 minutes, Drogba took a 40-yard free kick. Such was its power and lack of accuracy, that it rebounded off his own banner draped on the middle section of the Matthew Harding Stand. The banner said 'Drogba Legend', perhaps it should have said 'Drogba, more shooting practice needed'.
Oscar received a yellow card from German Feliz Brych for a fierce but accurate challenge on Selcuk Inan, five minutes before the break.
Three minutes later and the Blues were in dreamland. A Lampard corner was met full on the forehead by Terry. Muslera could only parry away for his goal line the ball and centre back Gary Cahil was on hand, four yards out to ram the ball into the back of the net.
No changes were made by either side at half-time.
Hazard continued his excellent first half with a majestic mazy run four minutes after the restart. Perhaps he should have taken a shot on more than one occasion, but instead he cut the ball back from the byline to Eto'o, who touched it into Oscar. the Brazil midfielder got a shot away, but was fouled in the process.
Chelsea's quick counter-attacks were proving more fruitful than Galatasaray's, and a minute later, Lampard fed, Willian who let fly with a venomous right-foot, which Muslera did well to parry away to safety.
Ex-Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini, now boss at Galatasaray, made his first change on 54 minutes, replacing Yilmaz with Umet Bulut.
The away side had a sniff of a chance when Wesley Sneijder sent in a cute curler deep into the Chelsea penalty area, Bukut went to ground under a challenge from Cahill and the ball went into then safe palms of Cech. The striker claimed for a penalty but was waved away by Brych.
An elbow by Branislav Ivanovic on Drogba, earned the Serbia defender a yellow card on 58 minutes.
A Lampard header, on target but saved well by Muslera signalled the Blues were starting to take complete control of the game.
So it was no surprise to see on 67 minutes number two for Galatasary saw Hakan Balta enter the fray for Yekaterinburg Kurtulus. This was swiftly followed by Chelsea idol Drogba getting a yellow card for a foul on Cesar Azpilicueta. It would go nicely with a silver boot given to him by the club in honour of his eight years of service just before the game.
Mancini's final throw of the die came on 77 minutes with the introduction of Izet Hajrovic for Emmanuel Eboue.
Jose Mourinho decided to bring on some fresh legs into his side, with German Andre Schurrle coming on for Oscar with eight minutes of the tie remaining.
Hazard forced Muslera into a smart save to his left to thwart the man-of-the match as Chelsea set about changing their strike force - Fernando Torres coming on for Eto'o with four minutes left on the clock. Muslera, again proved his worth to the Turks by kicking away a Torres effort for a corner.
The minutes ticked away, until the final whistle was blown - job done.
Teams: Chelsea, Cech, Ivanovic, Ramires, Lampard, Oscar, Hazard, Willian, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta, Eto'o
Subs, Schwarzer, Luiz, Torres, Mikel, Schurrle, Ba, Kalas
Galatasaray, Muslera, Melo, Inan, Sneijder, Drogba, Telles, Yilmz, Chedjou, Kaya, Eboue, Kurtulus
Subs, Ceylan, Burdisso, Gulselam, Hajrovic, Bulut, Balta, Sanoglu
Referee, Felix Brych - Germany