Chelsea Take the Upper Hand Over Liverpool
Liverpool and Chelsea met once again in the knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League. This time it was in the quarter final stage of the biggest club soccer competition in the world. On this occasion the match was played on Liverpool’s home turf.
Last year Chelsea overcame Liverpool at the semi final stage so they would have gone into this leg full of confidence although playing at Anfield has not been a happy hunting ground for Chelsea. In their previous four Champions League matches at Anfield only a John Arne Riise own goal found the back of the Liverpool net.
Liverpool got off to a great start with a goal in the sixth minute. It was that man Fernando Torres who opened the scoring. Dirk Kuyt started the move that lead to the goal with a back heal out to the right wing, Alvaro Arbeloa crossed and Torres did the rest.
Chelsea were given a chance to level the scores a short time later as Didier Drogba broke clear and just had Pepe Reina to beat. Drogba was only able to shoot into the Liverpool keeper.
Chelsea finally leveled the match after 39 minutes. The goal scorer was most unexpected. Chelsea’s Serbian fullback Ivanovic scored his first goal for the club with a header. The goal came off a Malouda corner kick when Ivanovic met the ball in traffic to beat Reina.
Just to show his first goal was no fluke Ivanovic popped up again in the 62nd minute to again head home a corner, this time from the boot of Lampard. It only got worse for Liverpool, this was no magical Anfield night. In the 67th minute a perfect cross from the left by Malouda found Drogba wo from close range poked the ball past Reina.
So that is how it ended. 3-1 to Chelsea. That was the worst defeat at home in a Champions League match since a 3-1 to FC Barcelona in November 2001. Liverpool now faces a huge task in the second leg. They know they need to score three unanswered goals at Chelsea’s home ground.
In the other match Barcelona were way too good for Bayern Munich taking the match 4-0. The German team had gone into the match after suffering a 5-0 loss in the German league so it came as no surprise to see them humbled by Barcelona. Messi scored a double and Eto’o and Henry also scored. All goals came in the first half.
The two matches played the night before ended in draws. Manchester United had a late goal scored against them to see the match end 2-2 against Porto at Old Trafford. Arsenal managed to get a valuable away goal as their match against Villarreal ended at 1-1.
The second leg matches will be played on 14-15 April. Based on the first leg results you would say Chelsea and Barcelona are almost assured of advancing to the semifinals, while the other matches are wide open.
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