Chelsea 1 Liverpool 0: Cole gives Chelsea vital advantage
Thursday, 26 April 2007
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It will be the Anfield roar against the new power in English football on Tuesday, or rather the game's most sentimental old stadium against its least sentimental winning machine. Joe Cole's goal last night gave Chelsea a precarious advantage for this Champions League semi-final second leg but their mastery of Liverpool told a more emphatic story about where the power lies.
From the scoreline alone this game is finely balanced, on the evidence of the first half Rafael Benitez's team will need more than 10,000 voices from the Kop to turn it around. They may have edged back into the contest after the break but you left Stamford Bridge believing that it is Jose Mourinho who is in control and that, come Tuesday, it will be the Special One's special day in Athens to lose.
Ruthless and unyielding, led by the peerless Didier Drogba, Chelsea threatened to vanquish Liverpool at times and would surely have settled this game were it not for the brilliance of Pepe Reina in goal. Chelsea will have Michael Essien back in midfield at Anfield, one more immovable object in the way of a Liverpool comeback, while the transformation of Benitez's team will have to be a lot more radical to turn this tie around.
Mourinho's biggest mistake was to assume that a handball by Alvaro Arbeloa in the second half was yet another penalty denied him by the worldwide referees' conspiracy being orchestrated against Chelsea. He was wrong, badly wrong, and not just on the question of the conspiracy. Unequivocal about the handball which was yards outside the area in his Sky interview, Mourinho was forced to perform a delicate volte face when he spoke to the press.
It is rare indeed that the manager of Chelsea is culpable on the finer details and Sky played the incident over and over again as if they were not about to trust their eyes against Mourinho on just one viewing. As ever, the Chelsea manager found an escape with a sharp little quip of his own. A remark that the Sky pundit Graeme Souness made that Mourinho was " looking like a man under pressure" was put to the Chelsea manager. "Remind me," Mourinho tartly replied, "where's he [Souness] working now?" Ouch. Such are the potential pitfalls of taking on Mourinho although in this case Souness had a point. The Chelsea manager has started to believe rather too readily in the powers he believes are ranged against him. Perhaps his real regret was that his team failed to bury Liverpool at the first time of asking last night, after a game in which Benitez's side were at times fortunate to emerge with their Champions League lives intact.
No bite in attack was Benitez's problem with a sullen Craig Bellamy little more than a bystander before he was replaced with Peter Crouch seven minutes into the second half. The England striker is his side's top goalscorer but even that does not guarantee him a start in the big matches although his presence increased the pressure on Chelsea. Crouch's late clash with Drogba could have been a lot more serious for Liverpool and England but the nose Crouch broke in February was only bruised.
He rarely makes mistakes but Benitez's post-match demeanour, even more understated than normal, suggested that he had reason for regrets after this match. Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano looked overrun in midfield, and Steven Gerrard was a marginal figure save for one inspired shot on goal. No one has better mastered the dark art of beating Mourinho's Chelsea over the past three seasons, and Liverpool must believe that if anyone can turn it around then it is Benitez.
Chelsea went for the long ball first, and they hit it hard and direct at Drogba there can be no kinder description for their approach. The Ivorian striker chests down balls that lesser mortals would struggle to get their head on although Jamie Carragher was insistent that the decisions were going against him. Eight minutes gone and Drogba's header back across the box was met firmly by Frank Lampard. Reina's save was exceptional.
Tellingly for Liverpool, their only real threat came from Bolo Zenden who was picking on Paulo Ferreira, by far Chelsea's weakest link. The goal came on 29 minutes, a typical piece of Chelsea football: rugged and direct. Ricardo Carvalho glided out of defence holding Dirk Kuyt at bay and struck a low pass out to Drogba on the right wing. The Chelsea striker made light of Daniel Agger's efforts to make a challenge, holding the defender at arm's length while he waited for the run of Joe Cole into the area. The ball was snapped back across the box and the England man met it first time to beat Reina.
Apart from Mourinho, the Arbeloa incident went largely unnoticed, a clumsy swing and the ball ricocheted up against his arm, Liverpool's best chance came on 53 minutes. Crouch challenged John Obi Mikel at a long throw-in and the ball broke loose to Gerrard on the edge of the area. He struck a brilliant shot low to Petr Cech's left that the Chelsea goalkeeper turned around the post. It did not turn the tide against Chelsea but Benitez's side gained a slight foothold in the game with Drogba dragged back into his own penalty area to take care of Crouch at set-pieces.
There is a difference, however, between putting Chelsea under pressure and actually breaking through the blue line. In the end it was Reina who was the equal to Lampard's volley from Drogba's flick. In the closing stages, Drogba had a late chance with a header and Stamford Bridge was left with the sense that it could have been far worse for Liverpool. It will certainly have to be a lot better for them if Benitez is to pull off another remarkable comeback on Tuesday.
Chelsea (4-1-3-2): Cech; Ferreira, Terry, Carvalho, A Cole; Makelele; Lampard, Mikel, J Cole (Wright-Phillips, 85); Shevchenko (Kalou, 76), Drogba. Substitutes not used: Cudicini (gk), Boulahrouz, Geremi, Bridge, Diarra.
Liverpool (4-4-2): Reina; Arbeloa, Agger, Carragher, Riise; Gerrard, Alonso (Pennant, 83), Mascherano, Zenden; Kuyt, Bellamy (Crouch, 52). Substitutes not used: Dudek (gk), Hyypia, Gonzalez, Sissoko, Paletta.
Referee: M Merk (Germany).
