Liverpool vs Chelsea Champions League Semi Final LiveBlog

Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea

Kuyt 42′ – Riise o.g. 90+

Finally, it’s the mouthwatering Champions League semi we’ve all been waiting for as Barcelona take on Manch…oh. Never mind, I’ve just been told it’s Liverpool vs Chelsea. Again.

But chin up. It’s still the Champions League semi-final, and since every other meeting between these two has been God awful, the law of averages means this is going to be a cracker. Doesn’t it? Read on for the LiveBlog…

Wow. Not a bad game all in all. Unless you’re a certain left footed Norwegian of course. Liverpool probably played the better football, and Chelsea did a lot of “long ball to Drogba, rinse, repeat” but one all is the final score. Thanks to everyone who read and commented. We’ll be doing the Barcelona vs Manchester United game tomorrow.

Final whistle Very strange, but now Chelsea have the advantage with an away goal. Got to feel for John Arne Riise.

94′ Goal!! Own goal! Oh dear. A low cross comes in from Kalou, Riise gets down low, but ends up putting a diving header past Reina. 1-1.

93′ Corner lands at Torres feet at the far post, he shoots low, but Cech saves.

92′ Mascherano dribbles through several Chelsea players (think he took them by surprise) until John Terry knocks him down. Terry gets the first yellow of the night for a pretty cynical tackle.

90+ We’re in stoppage time now, looking like 1-0 Liverpool.

89′ Gerrard tackles my Makelele, so gives him a little push. Think the Liverpool captain is frustrated with the impressive man-marking job Makelele has pulled on him tonight.

85′ Ballack off, Nicolas “shiny head” Anelka on. Maybe Grant’s hoping the glare will blind Carragher and/or Skrtel?

84′ Forget what I said about Gerrard. He just unleashed one of those classic long range outside of the right boot shots. Cech saves, but great effort.

83′ Anelka is waiting to come on. His bald head is actually shining under the floodlights. I had to turn the contrast down on my TV.

81′ Gerrard plays a smart little one-two with Torres, at pave. But Cech gets to the return pass first. Fairly quiet evening for Stevie G.

80′ Lampard with a chance to shoot from well inside the box, but just as he was pulling the trigger Jamie Carragher flung himself in the way. Carragher’s having a fine game.

79′ Robbie Mustoe is commentating on ESPN2 and he’s just suggested that both teams would settle for the current result. I have trouble believing Chelsea would take this, what with away goals being so imprtant.

78′ Riise unleashes a left footed shot. But it’s s-l-o-w. About 0.5% of the pace the Norwegian is capable of striking a ball at.

76′ Babel off, Yossi Benayoun on. Shame to see Babel and his pace leave the pitch, but Benayoun’s got some nice skills.

75′ Another high ball to Drogba, which the Cote d’Ivoire man brings down with his chest. He’s had more touches with his chest than his feet today. Carragher tackles him though.

74′ Makelele pulls a stepover in his own box and gets away with it.

72′ Come on Avram Grant, let’s see Anelka partnered with Drogba.

68′ Drogba goes down like he’s been shot after a challenge with Riise. My guess is he’ll make a miraculous recovery.

67′ Another chance for Chelsea, as Malouda receives a nice flick pass from Lampard and cuts inside to shoot, but Mascherano slides in just in time.

66′ Cross comes in form a free kick and Ballack gets his head to it. Classic Ballack but straight at Reina.

64′ Drogba squares for Lampard, but the Chelsea midfielder runs it out of play. Not a great night for Lampard so far.

63′ Handball? Carragher’s low cross hits Michael Ballack in the arm. Nothing given. Ballack relieved.

62′ Malouda dribbles forwards and stries to play Drogba through, but the ball goes to far ahead of Chelsea’s target man.

- Chelsea make a change, Joe Cole off, Salamon Kalou on. Still doesnt solve the problem of Chelsea being predictable though.

61′ Yep. Aurelio stretchered off, John Arne Riise and his rocket of a left foot come on at left back.

59′ Fabio Aurelio is down on the ground with his hand between his legs (childish snigger.) Looks like he’s pulled his groin. Think we’ll get our first substitution.

58′ Ryan Babel gets a volley off from the edge of the area, great technique and only just wide. What did they give him at halftime?

55′ Drogba only just fails to keep a long ball from Pert Cech from going out of play. Chelsea are going to need something a bit subtler than “kick it long to Drogba” to get back in this. Especially because Skrtel and Carragher can deal with that sort of physical appriach. Skrtel has tattoos.

54′ Liverpool moving the ball around much quicker this half. This game has a nice tempo now.

50 Well this has livened up, Babel giving Chelsea defenders a hard time by running at them.

47′ Torres runs into Carvahlo while chasing a through ball. The (completely unibiased of course) Anfield crowd shout for a foul, but Torres shakes hands with the Chelsea defender. Aw.

46′ Doesn’t look like there’s been any halftime subs. But surely Chelsea have to use Anelka and/or Kalou at some point.

45′ We have second half.

…

45′ Half time. That goal should open things up a bit. Or at least make Chelsea chase the game a bit more. Maybe we’ll see Anelka for the second half? I’m off for a cuppa, but now I’m looking forward to the second half.

42′ GOAL!!! 1-0 Liverpool! – Not the prettiest thing you’ll ever see, but Mascherano’s mishit shot looped up into the box, Kuyt managed to hold off Makelele and then swung his big Dutch foot at it. Credit to Kuyt, he made the tackle on Lampard that got the ball to Mascherano.

38′ Kuyt wins a tussle with Cashley down the right and nearly gets a square ball across. Nearly.

34′ Skrtel clears a ball with such height, I’ll bet there’s a young Liverpool lad just got a free Champions League matchball.

Quite a few chances so far. I’m giving this game a 6 out of 10 right now.

30′ Gerrard slides a pass to put Torres through… he looked for all the world like he was going to score but Cech managed to block it.

28′ Drogba and Carragher tussle for a through ball. Drogba goes down but doesn’t get the penalty. Replay shows Carragher just about got a touch on the ball. Just.

27′ Drogba wins a very soft looking free kick. Skrtel literally touched him and Drogba collapsed.

25′ Sidenote: interesting that we’ve all gotten used to Rafa’s goatee beard now. Remember how silly it used to seem? Now he’d look weird without it.

21′ Kuyt and Drogba clash knees and Drogba goes down. But no worries, Drogba’s up and about now.

20′ Cole misses another chance by making a poor karate kick style effort at a cross. No excuse for that one.

17′ Drogba squares it for Cole who’s little legs can’t quite reach it. A few chances early on though. Encouraging stuff?

16′ Torres gets a half chance, but can’t flick it past Terry or Cech. Still a half chance is all he needs. Just ask Arsenal fans.

12′ So close. Dirk Kuyt received a long ball in the box, and was onside. Unfortunately his first touch was Vinnie Jones-esque. Looks like Kuyt tried to take it on his chest but it hit him somewhere pointy, like his collar bone. Proof that this game is all about counter attacking though.

9′ Reina punts an absolutely mammoth kick from his hands. It bounces straight out for a Chelsea goal kick. That was about as direct as you can get.

7′ Good looking through ball nearly finds Malouda. But Reina beats him to it, and Malouda was offside anyway.

5′ Scramble in midfield as Liverool and Chelsea players kick it at each other a few times. Looked a bit like pub league football. Mascherano confirms that by booting it into the crowd. Odd.

2′ Drogba fires a free kick into the wall. Not sure who it hit, but I’m glad it wasn’t me.

1′ Torres caught offside. I’ll say this, given how image conscious most Premiership players are, Petr Cech has some big balls wearing that helmet thing. Good on him.

0′ And we’re off…

All the players look either very focused or very nervous. Maybe both. Alright, I’m definitely in the mood for this now.

Teams are coming out, Liverpool players touching the “This is Anfield” sign as they go.

5 minutes ’til kick off Liverpool fans are singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” I’m not a Liverpool fan, but it still makes my spine tingle.

Any more predictions? I see Ian’s going for 3-1 Liverpool.

I’m going 1-1.

10 minutes(ish) ’til kick off – I might be tempting fate here… but I’m looking at those lineups and thinking “How can a game with Gerrard, Torres, Babel, Alonso, Cole (Joseph), Ballack, Lampard, Drogba etc possibly fail to entertain?

20 minutes ’til kick off – Starting lineups as follows…

Liverpool: Reina, Aurelio, Carragher, Skrtel, Arbeloa, Kuyt, Babel, Alonso, Mascherano, Gerrard, Torres.
Subs: Itandje, Hyypia, Riise, Benayoun, Crouch, Pennant, Lucas.

Chelsea: Cech, Ferreira, Carvalho, Terry, A Cole, Lampard, Makelele, Ballack, J Cole, Drogba, Malouda.
Subs: Hilario, Shevchenko, Obi, Kalou, Alex, Belletti, Anelka.

30 minutes ’til kick off – All kinds of previews for this game around The Offside:

• Chris’s Joga Bonito preview from earlier today
• The all singing all dancing Champions League Offside preview
• A verbal Tug of war between our Chelsea and Liverpool bloggers
• Picture tells a thousand words on Chelsea Offside

45 minutes ’til kick off – Cynicism aside, I’m still optimistic we’ll see a good game here. It’s a European night at Anfield, so that’s good, right? Also, the current Liverpool team is a more attacking more entertaining model than in recent meetings, with Fernando Torres himself banging in goals left, right and centre.

Chelsea might have a few problems (not helped by Avram Grant’s interesting new press conference technique) but they’re also three points off the top of the Premier League with a game against Man Utd to come on Saturday, and here they are in a Champions League semi. There are plenty of clubs who’d love those kinds of problems.

Some Related Stories:

Category: Champions League