THERE have been a number of clashes between Liverpool and Chelsea over the years that would be worthy of mention, such as the Reds’ 7-4 victory over Chelsea at Anfield in 1946 that set Liverpool on their way to the clubs first post-war league title, or the 1965 semi-final, or even any one of the memorable league clashes between the two clubs in the 1990’s including a 4-2 win at Anfield that included a Paddy Berger hat-trick.
But if we’re all honest with ourselves, the true rivalry between the two clubs didn’t start in earnest until 2004-05 season, and this is why, for me, our top five head-to-heads with the club we’ve all ‘affectionately’ come to know as Chelski have come in the past 6 years.
5. Chelsea 3 Liverpool 2 (Chelsea Win 4-3 on Aggregate), 2008 Champions League Semi-final 2nd Leg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgl7OUqrtmE)
When Liverpool met Chelsea in the Champions League semi in 2008 Jose Mourinho was no more, so it wasn’t such a high-octane game, in the way previous ties had been. Instead, Avram Grant was in temporary charge and presented Rafa Benitez with a slightly different proposition. Whereas Mourinho was liable to flap under pressure when out-thought by the Spaniard, Grant was a much cooler prospect and was working with a lavishly expensive squad of superstars.
The Reds, on the other hand, were in the process of putting together their strongest side in years and were unlucky to have drawn the first leg at Anfield. However, it was John Arne Riise’s own goal from the 1st leg that overshadows this whole tie to this day, which is a shame because, after a dominant 1st leg Liverpool went to Stamford Bridge buoyed by their performance and matched Chelsea blow for blow. After an early goal from Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres levelled the game in the second-half and took the tie in to extra time. A tense chess match in normal time was followed by a frantic extra-time, in which energy levels after a long season began to take toll on both sides and mistakes ensued. Unfortunately for Liverpool, it was they who paid most dearly and Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba put the tie out of Liverpool’s reach. A late Ryan Babel goal gave Liverpool hope but Chelsea ultimately hung on to reach their first Champions League final.
4. Chelsea 3 Liverpool 2 2005 Carling Cup Final (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpdNSOOnk_s)
A first cup final in Rafa Benitez’s first season and likewise for Jose Mourinho but the contrast couldn’t have been more great. On the one hand, Liverpool were in the process of massive transition, with Benitez laying down a plan to alter the team – and the club, as a whole – fortunes after the final couple of years of failure under Gerard Houllier. On the other, Chelsea were on the hunt for their first Premier League title under Jose Mourinho and were expected to overcome a very average Liverpool side easily.
Liverpool began in storming fashion, after a 45th second goal from John Arne Riise, scoring in his typically thunderbolt style. The first-half continued in fairly ‘end-to-end’ style, with both sides having chances. However, in the second-half, Chelsea’s dominance began to show and the Reds were reduced to trying to hang on for the 1-0 victory. It was near the end of the 2nd half that Steven Gerrard began his rather… interesting relationship with Chelsea (that would see him face the club numerous times and almost sign for them twice) when he scored a disastrous own goal. Into extra-time and Liverpool were utterly deflated, letting in further goals from Kezman and Drogba before Antonio Nunez pulled back a late consolation. It was here that the intense rivalry between the two clubs began, with Jose Mourinho ‘shushing’ the Liverpool fans, in typically classless fashion, after having received a bit of banter from the fans behind his dugout. The rearguard action from the team, however, and the experience gained in this painful defeat would be the downfall of an overconfident Chelsea side in the future.
3. Chelsea 4 Liverpool 4 (Chelsea Win 7:5 on Aggregate), 2009 Champions League Quarter-final (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOrruqFA5Pc&feature=fvwrel)
Without a doubt, this game is the most exciting game on this list, purely in terms of goals. It was the most expansive and open-ended Liverpool vs Chelsea tie during the last 5-6 years and represented a welcome departure from the tense, close games of previous encounters.
With Chelsea leading 3-1 from the first leg at Anfield, many believed the tie was already over but, as always seemed to get the better of Chelsea over the years, over-confidence was almost their undoing, as the Reds gave them the game – and the fright – of their lives.
In a dominant first-half, Liverpool put Chelsea to the sword, scoring twice with the goals from Fabio Aurelio and Xabi Alonso, leaving the Blues shell-shocked and putting Liverpool back level over two legs. It was Liverpool’s turn in the 2nd half, though, as Chelsea roared back in to the tie, with an OG from Pepe Reina and goals from Drogba and Lampard putting Chelsea back in front on the night and up 6:3 on aggregate. Again, though, the Blues relaxed too much, believing the hard work was done and Lucas and Kuyt stunned the home fans with two goals with a crazy two minutes, with just 10 minutes remaining. What ensued was utter bedlam, as Chelsea struggled to decide whether to attempt to hold on to the aggregate lead – knowing a Liverpool goal would send them out – or to push on and try to win the game outright. Chances rained in at both ends before Frank Lampard fired in Chelsea’s 4th of the night, ending Red dreams across the world and pushing themselves in to the last 4.
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2. Liverpool 1 Chelsea 0 (1-1 on Aggregate, with Liverpool Winning 4:1 on Pens), 2007 Champions League Semi-final 2nd Leg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DOPyNockOI)
Two years after the Reds first Champions League semi-final under Rafa Benitez, we were at it all over again, once again playing the Blues of Chelsea over a two-legged tie. After a 1st leg, in which Didier Drogba had gone and given a young Daniel Agger the schooling of his career, Liverpool looked to welcome Chelsea to Anfield in typical fashion and initially, Mourinho’s men looked like a collection of very delicate deer caught in particularly bright headlights.
It was all change from the first leg and the Reds gave as good as they got, with Daniel Agger having learned from the first leg, he kept Drogba nice and warm in his pocket all night and even went down the opposite end to grab the goal that would put the game into extra time. Much unlike the same game in the ‘05 semi, Liverpool did much of the pressing and should have finished Chelsea off in extra-time but for Dirk Kuyt to see his goal disallowed.
It was always inevitable, I suppose, that this one would go to penalties and it did just that. The one everlasting image for most of us will be seeing Rafa Benitez’s zen-like pose, as he sat cross-legged on the side-lines; the epitome of calm throughout the entire shoot-out while, no doubt, the rest of us sat petrified or hiding behind our hands/somebody’s head, etc. With Pepe in goal though, we needn’t have worried, as we would go on to watch Chelsea fail from three of their spot kicks and Dirk Kuyt to make up for his perfectly fine goal being disallowed by netting the final penalty and putting us through to face AC Milan in the Final, for a second time in 3 years.
1. Liverpool 1 Chelsea 0 (Liverpool Win 1:0 on Aggregate), 2005 Champions League Semi-final 2nd Leg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOR_tlMkKyA)
Now, while there are undoubtedly games on this list that contained more goals, there cannot be any that contained more incidents, more goal-mouth action, more controversy or simply more stress, pain and emotion for Liverpool fans, before the eventual, sweeping joy that washed over us all at the final whistle.
Following on from a 1st leg where the Reds had simply done a good job of holding Chelsea to 0-0, the pressure was on both sides to get that all-important first goal. Knowing the risks of pushing on too much early on, Liverpool looked to set up their stall in the same way they had at Stamford Bridge and look for a patient approach. All indications from the media and press experts were that Chelsea would grab at least one away goal, leaving the task insurmountable for Rafa’s boys and that would simply prolonged the inevitable. Well, nobody told the little maestro, Luis Garcia that, as he nipped in to the Chelsea area with barely 4 minutes on the clock to score what an embittered Jose Mourinho would go on (and still to today) call a ghost goal. There is no way of fairly establishing whether the ball did or didn’t cross the line; Liverpool fans will claim it did, Chelsea fans that it didn’t. But that is neither here nor there, because had that goal not been allowed, Cech would have been off, the home side would have been awarded a penalty and we would likely have been playing 1-0 up against ten men for the next 80 or so minutes. Essentially, the referee did the Blues a big favour by allowing the goal.
The sticking point aside, Liverpool then did what they did best under Benitez in his first season: defend for their god-damned lives and Chelsea worked themselves in to the ground for the rest of the match, in vain, attempting to right what they saw as a great wrong. Following Luis’s goal the atmosphere only amplified further and a previously unflappable Chelsea just didn’t look like that same dangerous, clinical team that walked to the Premier League title in the same season. They tried, but every time the ball looked to be getting near Liverpool’s goal, it was as if every fan in the stand behind was somehow willing the ball out of the area.
As legs tired late on and the stress and psychological pressure began to take their toll on both sides, nerves began to fray and chances began to increase and all seemed to culminate in the milliseconds between Eidur Gudjonsen’s game-winning opportunity and everybody in the ground (and the hundreds of millions watching at home) seeing Chelsea’s one, golden opportunity squandered.
Before kick-off, the atmosphere was electric; following Garcia scoring his phantom goal, it increased ten-fold, but at the final whistle… well, nobody had heard anything like it before and I can’t see ever will again, as 20 years of mediocrity, stress, pressure and feeling of having been left behind at the top table came rushing out and the entire Red side of the city went into overload.
There have undoubtedly been better football matches (in purely football terms) for the neutral but in terms of what it meant and the I was there moments that ensued being regaled for years to come, the first big meeting between the two clubs in 2005 still stands out as the best for me. But, perhaps, with all that stands in the balance for Liverpool on Saturday, the FA Cup final with Chelsea will change all of that and who knows, maybe in 5 or 10 years time, we’ll still be re-counting our favourite moments and celebrating a superb game and a massive victory over our southern rivals.
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