Liverpool 1 Chelsea 1

Posted on April 23, 2008 
Filed Under Champions League

Chelsea have a clear advantage going into the second leg of this semi-final tie after Riise’s own goal deep into injury time.This was a fantastic match which saw Chelsea give a start to Florent Malouda & Liverpool Alvaro Arbeloa.Both teams started slow & was watching each others moves while Chelsea had all the nice & slick passing it was Liverpool had the better chances.It took Liverpool 7 Min’s to get there first when Steven Gerrard shot straight at Peter Cech then Dirk Kuyt was to blame when his poor ball control let him down when Alonso put him through & Cech was able to clear. Joe Cole was them put through & in the clear but he didn’t know he was in acres of space & wasted it.Chelsea then had penalty appeals turned down when Drogba was brought down by Carragher who went up field only for Cech to make a brilliant save from Torres. But it took a mix up & defensive errors to give Liverpool the lead.Alonso was alert & took a quick free kick which Lampard couldn’t get clear & Mascherano then miss-kicked & Kyut ran it & put the ball past Peter Cech& the half ended with Liverpool in front

The second half started with Liverpool in good mood after scoring making most of the play & in the 58th min Ryan Babel had a 25 yard shot just flash over the bar.Chelsea was struggling so in the 64th min Avram Grant made a change by taking off Cole & bringing on Kalou.Well he needed to do something as Pepe Reina hadn’t really had that much to do all night.But on 67 minutes he got some action as Ballack got on the end of a Lampard free-kick which Reina made a save then Mascherano hat to make a vital block as he stopped Malouda after Lampard had opened up Liverpool’s defence.Chelsea then started to get on top but Liverpool’s defence held firm & kept them at bay but did have a great chance of their own when Peter Cech had to make a world class save from Gerrard in the 85th min to turn his volley over the bar.Then he made another great stop when in injury time he saved from Torres but his goalkeeping kept Chelsea in the game & they rewarded him when Kalou crossed into Liverpool’s penalty area which caused a lot of trouble & with Riise in two minds what to do headed a fantastic flying header into his own net. 

                        Rafa Benitez                           Avram Grant

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