After a 0-0 draw in the first leg, everything would come down to the return at Anfield.
“We have nothing to lose tonight,” Rafa Benitez told his men. “Chelsea are the favourites. Everyone is talking about them. Whatever happens, we stick to the gameplan. The tactics remain the same. We do what we have to do, we carry on, and we stay focused. Don’t lose concentration, not even for a second.
“Don’t sit too deep. Push out as soon as you can. We need to stay compact, really tight, to fight for each other and to support each other. We know they will try to play a lot of penetrating passes, looking for [Didier] Drogba, so be aware, close them down. Be careful in our half. They are dangerous from set pieces, so no fouls. Don’t give them the chance to get the ball into the box. We clear the ball long, we get it away, and then we fight for the second ball.
“We keep possession and we play it simple, as simple as we can. We need our midfield to support [Milan] Baros, to get forward into space. Luis [Garcia] and [John Arne] Riise, you have space to go forward. And if we score, if they score, we just keep on doing the same things.”
Benitez would make only one change from the team that drew at Stamford Bridge, bringing in Dietmar Hamann for the suspended Xabi Alonso.
Jose Mourinho also made only one change to his line-up, switching right-back Glen Johnson for Geremi. The set-up was different though, looking more like a lopsided 4-2-3-1. Joe Cole and Eidur Gudjohnsen had both come inside in the first leg, but, while Cole continued in the same role, Gudjohnsen was now clearly starting centrally. The Icelander rarely, if ever, ventured towards the right flank. It was instead Tiago who would move out to defend that side, although he generally stayed central when Chelsea had possession.
Liverpool mostly shared the same set-up as they had in the first leg, however, buoyed by a rocking Anfield crowd, they played with much greater intensity. Rather than passively dropping off towards their own half, Baros and Steven Gerrard were ready to pounce on any misplaced passes – stealing the ball away in dangerous areas a few times.
Behind them the two banks of four remained compact, but once the ball was passed wide, Garcia and Riise would zip out to the touchline. Hamann was on top form alongside the equally solid Igor Biscan, constantly lunging into tackles but always coming away with the ball.
Boisterous home crowds are often talked about as intimidating, however Chelsea looked calmed given their surroundings. It was instead Liverpool who seemed to step up another level with the crowd pushing them on, making up for the gap in quality between the two sides with the sheer determination to get to every ball first and ensure Chelsea couldn’t use it.
It wasn’t long before Liverpool led. Just like their main attacks in the first leg, Liverpool played down the left. Riise passed inside to Gerrard and Liverpool’s captain dinked a first-time pass over the top of Chelsea’s defence with the outside of his boot for Baros running in behind. The Czech got to the ball before Petr Cech and was bundled over by his compatriot, however Garcia, always making runs through the middle to support Baros, was first to the bouncing ball, flicking it towards the goal. The crowd erupted in celebration, yet William Gallas was in position to cover. Whether or not the ball had crossed the line was impossible to tell, with Gallas blocking the view of the camera, however it was given by the officials as Liverpool’s players wheeled away.
Mourinho would claim that “the linesman scored the goal” rather than Garcia, later revising this statement to “it was the crowd that scored the goal”. The Portuguese should have perhaps been happy that the goal had been allowed to stand though, given the referee has confirmed that Cech would have been sent off without advantage being played, and a penalty awarded to Liverpool.
After taking the lead, Liverpool did as Benitez had told them to and continued to set a high tempo, snapping into challenges and giving Chelsea no time on the ball in the middle. They weren’t about to make the same mistake that had cost them the League Cup final, scoring an early goal then sitting off to protect their lead, welcoming Chelsea onto them.
Despite the change in strategy for this match, Chelsea weren’t having any more joy in attack. With Liverpool keeping compact, they weren’t able to work the ball forward. Too often they were going long towards Drogba, yet he was unable to chest the ball down for Gudjohnsen behind him as Biscan and Hamann were always patrolling the area in front of the defence.
It was only mid-way through the half that Chelsea finally adapted to the circumstances. Gudjohnsen would drop deep into midfield, with Frank Lampard making well-timed runs into the space he had left. Liverpool were still defending strongly, but Chelsea now had a grip on the game. All they needed was an equaliser to advance.
Liverpool made it to the break unscathed. “Get close to Drogba”, Benitez said at half-time. “They will play long to him, hitting him quickly from the back, and then look to regain the ball. We have to stay compact. Stick to the gameplan. Be close, challenge him, and then be ready for the second ball.”
This advice would become particularly pertinent. Unable to maintain their intensity, Liverpool began to drop off in the second half. “For us, it was about staying compact, working as a team, keeping our balance, pushing them when we were attacking, regaining second balls and running behind the defenders”, Benitez said recently. While this invited Chelsea to come onto them, it restricted what little space Chelsea had to work the ball through the middle.
All the space was out wide, yet Chelsea were playing without proper wingers. The width was instead provided by Gallas on the left, a right-footed natural centre-back, and Geremi, who didn’t have the pace to beat Djimi Traore down the outside – the Malian smartly slowing him down and looking to block any crosses, giving Riise the time to come across and double up on him.
Mourinho brought on a natural winger in Arjen Robben, but the Dutchman always played through the middle, playing right into Liverpool’s hands. Mateja Kezman did nothing to alleviate the problem either and so Chelsea were again relying on long balls towards Drogba – now surrounded by even more Liverpool shirts – to get the ball into attack. Mourinho doubled down on this tactic by bringing on hulking centre-back Robert Huth as a striker.
“The onslaught which we expected did not come,” reflected Benitez. “Mourinho brought on Robben but there was no change in style. Long ball, second ball. Long ball, second ball.”
Benitez brought on pacey Djibril Cisse to replace the tiring Baros, Gerrard moved back into midfield as the exhausted Hamann, after putting in an incredible shift, made way for Harry Kewell and Garcia got a deserved ovation when he was removed for Antonio Nunez.
All Liverpool’s hard work had nearly been for naught when a Dudek punch glanced off his glove into the feet of a bloodied Gudjohnsen. The roaring Anfield crowd held its collective breath, and released it again as his shot flew barely past the post.
The normally calm Benitez and his assistants Pako Ayesteran and Alex Miller spent the last fifteen minutes manically yelling from their technical area (although the beleaguered fourth official’s ignored attempts to shepherd them back towards their bench suggests they might have been encroaching on others’ turf), a dizzying number of instructions that the players couldn’t possibly hear, but they could finally breath easy when the final whistle blew.
Liverpool would be in the first European Cup final in twenty years.
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One response
My favourite series on this website so far!