Chelsea Take Slight Advantage To Anfield

It will be Chelsea and Jose Mourinho who will take a one goal lead to Anfield for the second leg of this Champions League semi-final encounter next Tuesday evening. Mourinho is hoping that his team’s attacking potential will be the ultimate factor in deciding the final outcome. Mourinho, who was obviously delighted with his players said after the game, “We normally score a goal and if we score a goal we have got a big chance of reaching the final.

“I think Liverpool think they can overturn the result but we are winning 1-0 and have a good defensive team.”

“I thought our performance was top class,” he continued. “We had so many chances and we finally scored with chance number six.

“The second half was different from the first. Liverpool attacked more and had a chance with a great shot from Steven Gerrard.”

It was Joe Cole who scored the only goal after half an hour after, sliding in Drogba’s cross.

If Chelsea were on top in the first and they certainly deserved their lead, Liverpool picked their games up in the second half and pinned Chelsea back for long periods. And you have to say, if it wasn’t for Petr Cech in the Chelsea goal Liverpool would have left Stamford Bridge with what could have been that vital away goal. Cech pulled off a stunning save from a typical long range volley from the Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard.

However, Cech wasn’t the only goallkeeper on top form last night. Pepe Reina has kept Liverpool in the tie with a couple of fantastic saves from Frank Lampard. You never know, those saves could be the defining moments of this semi-final. Had either of those attempts been converted by Lampard, the second leg would have been a completely different story. Liverpool are capable of turning round a 1 - 0 first leg score, 2 - 0 I’m not so sure!

As he must do, the Liverpool manager, Rafael Benitez, is staying positive for the second leg. He said, “You need to score just one and if we can score two we’ll be there.

“We will have the support of our people. They know they are really important for us and I hope we will feel the atmosphere behind us.”

I’ve said before that the atmosphere at Anfield for a special European night, which next Tuesday will certainly be, is almost unique in football. I am sure the amazing atmospherre generating when the teams met two years ago did contribute to the result. I done think the Chelsea players had ever encountered anything like it. Well, they have now. Even Mourinho was impressed and a little humbled by that atmosphere. He stated yesterday that the Annfield crowd that night was the only one in his time in football that he saw score a goal! How will Chelsea react this time? They know what to expect, they know that it is going to be red hot, surely they will be able to cope with it better!

So Liverpool are going to have to produce a similar performace and result to the 2 - 0 defeat they inflicted on Chelsea in January. The good thing for Liverpool is at least they know they are capable of such a scoreline. They don’t have to overcome that hurdle as well. Benitez and his players returned to Liverpool prabably wishing they had lost 2 - 1 instead of 1 - 0.

At “half-time” in the semi-finals, it is currently looking like we are going to get that first all English final, Man Utd v Chelsea. However, I suspect there are going to be a few twists and turns and a lot of drama still to come and AC Milan and Liverpool are not going to lie down easily when they both play at home. I’m not predicting anything!

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Many thanks
Rik