Saturday, April 26, 2008 . 1:32 AM
Liverpool 1 - 1 Chelsea
It seems that the fate of these 2 teams are intertwined. The rivalry started on the night of the final match of season 2002/03, when the two teams were fighting for the last Champions League spot, 4th place in the English Premier League. A winner from Jesper Gronkjaer sealed victory for Chelsea, putting them in the Champions League for the first time in 5 years. (A blessing in disguise though, because the qualification persuaded Roman Abramovich to buy Chelsea and transform it into the monstrosity it is today.)
Since then, the two have met in semi-finals on 3 separate occasions, first in 2005, where a controversial Luis Garcia goal gave Liverpool a 1-0 aggregate victory over the Blues to advance to the Champions League Final. Once again, they met in 2006 in an FA Cup semi-final this time, with John Arne Riise and Luis Garcia scoring giving the Reds a 2-1 victory to advance to the FA Cup Final. Just a year later, they met once more in a 2006-07 Champions League semi-final, with Liverpool winning on penalties.
This time, fate has dealt them another meeting.
Liverpool could not be blamed for going into this match full of confidence; after all, they had beaten Chelsea in all 3 previous semi-final meetings in the past 3 years, but Chelsea were always going to be a tough side to get a result against. Chelsea, who had recently seen their Premiership title challenge falter thanks to a 1-1 draw against Wigan, were looking to complete a Premiership and Champions League double.
Liverpool started the game as they always do; slow off the blocks and a little scrappy. They did manage to get into the game quicker this time, however. Although Chelsea enjoyed most of the possession in the opening 10 minutes, Liverpool carved out the first real chance of the match when a flighted throughball sent Kuyt, onside, through the defence in the 12th minute. His first touch was poor, however, and Cech got out quickly to collect.
Chelsea did not intend to let Liverpool get comfortable and in the 17th minute, Ballack distributed the ball out to the right to find Drogba, who drove his cross right across the face of the goal. Joe Cole could not get his foot to the ball, however, and it was collected by Reina. Joe Cole had another great opportunity in the 20th minute after Lampard capitalized on a poor pass from Arbeloa to send him through, but seemingly caught between shooting and controlling, he somehow contrived to miss his volley, giving Reina an easy collection.
Chelsea's tactic of the day was to punt long balls up to Drogba and hope that he could do 1 of 3 things: 1. Control the ball and hold it long enough for support to arrive, 2. Control the ball and fall down, claiming a penalty or a free kick, 3. Control the ball and try to get Carragher sent off. The first seemed to be working the best as Liverpool were caught out several times by the high balls. Carragher and Reina were vigilant though, and managed to keep the Chelsea attacks at bay.
As in every Liverpool vs Chelsea match, there was always bound to be controversy, and the first incident was provided by Drogba. A sliding tackle by Carragher in the 27th minute caught the Ivorian and he went down like a sack of potatoes in the box, claiming a penalty. Television replays showed that the challenge was outside the box and that Drogba, falling from outside the box, flung himself INTO the box so that he could claim foul. What honest footballing.
Gerrard was largely kept quiet throughout the match, thanks to the close attendance of Claude Makelele, but he managed to evade Makelele's attention for a split second to deliver a fantastic one-touch throughball to Torres in the 30th minute. Now if you wanted any Liverpool player to be one-on-one against the keeper, it would have to be Torres. But the Spaniard hesitated with his shot, allowing Cech to close the angle. When he did take the shot, it hit the keeper in the end. Should have been 1-0 to Liverpool right then and there.
Liverpool were getting into gear and a corner by Gerrard in the 36th minute nearly found Alonso at the far post, but Ballack got his head to the ball to elevate it over the head of the midfielder. Just 2 minutes later, the hardworking Kuyt dispossessed Ashley Cole in the Chelsea box on Liverpool's right flank, but his pass across goal to Torres was intercepted and cleared by the Chelsea skipper.
As half time beckoned, Liverpool pushed for the elusive first goal that would give them the psychological advantage over Chelsea in the second half. The breakthrough came when Kuyt dispossessed Lampard, who was dallying with his clearance, just outside the Chelsea box. Alonso gained possession from the resulting tackle, and backheeled it to Mascherano, who scuffed his volley. The ball fell into the path of Kuyt though, who was making a run forward. The Dutchman then showed great strength to hold of Makelele, who was virtually falling onto him, to put the ball beneath Cech and into the back of the net. 1-0 to Liverpool.
The second half began much in the way the first half ended, with Liverpool turning the screw on Chelsea. A long ball from Mascherano in the 51st minute found Babel on the left flank. Babel took Ferreira on and beat the Portugese for pace, then put in a low cross across the face of the goal. Ashley Cole was on hand to clear it away from Kuyt, but his clearance found Alonso, whose shot was deflected for a corner. Alonso grimaced after that chance, the shot was very well on target and had the deflection not occurred, Chelsea would have been 2 down.
Babel was starting to get into the game and he threatened in the 58th minute when a flick-on from Gerrard found the Dutchman on the edge of the box. He took one touch to put it past Carvalho, then his second was a shot that flashed just wide of the post.
The controversy was not over for the night, a second penalty claim was put up when Ballack appeared to have handled the ball inside the Chelsea box in the 62nd minute. Television replays showed he indeed touched the ball with his arm, but the penalty was not given.
Chelsea, who were incapable of playing good football, decided to stop Liverpool from playing at all, by putting in dirty challenges that could have put several Liverpool players out of commission, most notably, Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano. The referee must either been blind, or bribed as he let so many challenges go, failing to give Chelsea yellow cards for what were clearly yellow card offences.
Liverpool were in good control of the match, and this was epitomized in the 84th minute, when good one-two passing between Gerrard and Kuyt freed the Englishman on the right of the penalty box. He tapped the ball past Makelele, then smashed it toward the top corner of the Chelsea goal. Cech displayed excellent reflexes to deny Liverpool their second.
Then, in the 94th minute, when Liverpool thought they must have been home and dry, a throw in on Chelsea's left flank saw the ball end up with Salomon Kalou, who produced a cross. John Arne Riise, who came on for the injured Aurelio in the 61st minute, stooped low to head the ball clear of the onrushing Anelka, and somehow contrived to head the ball past Reina into the roof of the net. There was jubilation within the Chelsea ranks as they grabbed a totally undeserving equalizer, in the cruellest manner possible (which, of course, appeals to all Chelsea fans).
Now Liverpool will have to travel to Stamford Bridge a week later and score against Chelsea. Something they have not been able to do in Rafael Benitez's reign at Anfield. The future looks bleak.
Jose Reina - 7
Did not have much to do in this match, but when called upon, produced fine stops and good goalkeeping. Could not do anything to stop the own goal.
Alvaro Arbeloa - 7
Average performance from the Spaniard. Looked a little short of match practice.
Fabio Aurelio - 7
Showed why he was able to keep Riise out of the first team with some good passing and wing play down the left flank.
Jamie Carragher - 8
His mission of the day was to stop Didier Drogba. Not only did he do that, but he managed not to fall into the Ivorian's cheating traps and shenanigans.
Martin Skrtel - 8
As always, a fine deputy for Sami Hyypia and Daniel Agger. His no-nonsense defending attitude is akin to that of Jamie Carragher's.
Xabi Alonso - 7
Average game for the Spaniard. A controlled display in midfield. Have seen him perform better though.
Javier Mascherano - 7
Such a key player for Liverpool, with his great defensive cover and harrassing of players. Was instrumental in keeping Ballack and Lampard quiet.
Dirk Kuyt - 8
Played very well on the right, putting in many great tackles, good passes and excellent running. Most notable was the way he always came back to help Arbeloa out in defense.
Ryan Babel - 7
A quiet game for the Dutchman, he was usually isolated against Paulo Ferreira, pitting his pace against the Portugese, but could not really make an impact on the game.
Steven Gerrard - 7
Was kept very quiet by Claude Makelele, did not manage to influence the game as much as he would like.
Fernando Torres - 7
Was buffeted all over the place by the Chelsea defenders. Suffered a great deal of abuse from Terry and Carvalho. He was a constant threat, however, and could have and probably should have scored from the Gerrard one-touch throughball.
Substitutes:
John Arne Riise - 6
The poor fella came on for Aurelio and did his job well, until the 94th minute when he chose to head the ball instead of just putting out an old fashioned clearance. I put it down to his unwillingness to use his right foot.
Yossi Benayoun - 6
Put on for the ineffective Ryan Babel. Failed to make much of an impact though.
Archangel's Man of The Match: Dirk Kuyt
Final Score: Liverpool 1 - 1 Chelsea
"Oh damn. The path of my life is strewn with cowpats from the devil's own satanic herd!" - Blackadder, Season 2 Episode 4 "Money"
Archangel
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