You wait five games for a goal at Anfield -
and then three of them come along together. But while the heroes of
Chelsea's finest European night since they saw off Barcelona in
2005 were easy to identify, the man who made it possible was just
as clear.
Rafa Benitez had mastered Jose Mourinho twice and sent Luis
Felipe Scolari plunging over the abyss earlier this season. Yet
last night it was the Spaniard who was on the receiving end of a
tactical mauling at the hands of Guus Hiddink, who did everything
right from first minute to 90th.
Hiddink will be leaving Stamford Bridge in the summer, with
Carlo Ancelotti having verbally agreed to leave Milan for SW6 at
the end of the season. After an evening like this, though, the
possibility of Hiddink bequeathing a side that has already finally
brought Roman Abramovich his Holy Grail of the Champions League
must be a realistic one.
Chelsea did not just beat Liverpool, did not merely slay the
ghosts of Anfield. They simply annihilated Benitez's Reds and could
justifiably have gone back to London last night bemoaning the fact
they had scored scored six or seven.
Hiddink's gamble on asking Michael Essien to be the Krytonite in
Superman Steven Gerrard's pocket worked brilliantly, neutralising
the elemental force of the Liverpool side.
Trusting Florent Malouda, so often the weakest link in the
Chelsea dressing room, paid off in spades, the French winger
creating two of the goals that left Anfield stunned into
disbelieving silence.
And most crucially of all, as Didier Drogba showed why no
defender in the world would want to play him, the risk in playing
Branislav Ivanovic at right back in place of the injured Jose
Bosingwa brought the perfect reward.
What made it all the better, all the more joyful for the Blues,
was the courage they showed in adversity after going behind after
just six minutes. Dirk Kuyt had already gone close with a snap-shot
but when his heel-flick found the overlapping Alvaro Arbeloa,
Fernando Torres matched the cross with a perfect instant finish,
giving Petr Cech no chance.
Anfield erupted, yet where Chelsea have folded in the face of
the Merseyside passion play, under Hiddink's calm instructions they
simply stuck to the game-plan, first gaining parity and then,
conclusively, control.
In fact, the only surprise was that it took as long as 38
minutes for Chelsea to go level as they carved out chance after
chance.
Drogba, a constant threat on an evening where he left the
histrionics behind, could, probably should have scored twice, first
firing straight at Pepe Reina and then blazing over from a pass by
the excellent Michael Ballack.
Malouda, too, went close, but it was from the Frenchman's
inswinging corner that Ivanovic, who had never before scored for
Chelsea and was nearly sold to Juventus in January, made his first
mark of the night.
Xabi Alonso lost the Serb as he darted into the box, finding the
space between Kuyt Martin Skrtel to head home and become the first
Chelsea player to score at Anfield in this annual grudge-match.
No more than Chelsea deserved and while Torres remained a
constant threat and Cech denied Kuyt straight after the equaliser,
Hiddink's men were simply a class apart.
The Liverpool fans did all they could, imploring their man to
change the game, but the course, steered so ably by the wily
Hiddink, was set. Drogba, for the third time, was thwarted after he
exchanged passes with Frank Lampard, held off Skrtel and slipped
past Reina, as Jamie Carragher brilliantly hooked off his own
line.
Then what could have been a pivotal moment in the tie, as John
Terry needlessly careered into Reina to pick up the booking that
rules him out of the second leg, became the cause his team-mates
rallied around.
Two minutes after Terry's booking, Ivanovic was incredibly again
left unmarked by the Liverpool defence at a Lampard corner, heading
powerfully back and beyond Reina as Gerrard looked behind him in
horror.
And to Anfield's despair and desolation, they were undone again
five minutes later as Drogba belatedly got the goal his display had
deserved.
It was a belter of a goal too, with Ballack sending Malouda away
down the left - possibly offside although it was a wafer-thin
decision - and sliding across for Drogba to consign all the
previous misses to oblivion with an unanswerable finish.
There could have been more, Malouda and Ballack both denied by
Reina, who ended the game inside the Chelsea box as Liverpool
desperately sought some glimmer of hope.
Nobody could quibble about this one though, equalling
Liverpool's worst home defeat in 45 years of European football,
giving Chelsea a night to remember after all the evenings to
forget. Outstanding. Simply outstanding.
