UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMI-FINAL:Rafael Benitez's pre-match attack was all the incentive the striker needed, says Richard Williams

IT TOOK Didier Drogba exactly 32 seconds of last night's match to collapse theatrically after the lightest of ankle-taps from Xabi Alonso. It might just have been his little joke, an instant riposte to Rafael Benitez's calculated accusations during the Liverpool manager's pre-match press conference, but it won him a free-kick from the Italian referee Roberto Rosetti.

Benitez's remarks were typical of the sort of mildly pathetic psychological warfare that so often prefaces matches between the Premier League's big four, and it would have been nice had he seen fit to hold his tongue in advance of this second leg of the semi-final of Europe's premier club competition.

He had a point about Drogba's histrionics in the first leg, and there are plenty of observers who would admire the big Ivorian all the more were he to refrain from throwing his 6ft 2in frame to the ground with quite such exaggerated alacrity, but as things turned out the Liverpool manager might have been better advised to have held his peace.

Drogba looked the most dangerous player on either side by a considerable distance in last night's opening exchanges, leaving Martin Skrtel, his marker, behind as he moved on to Michael Ballack's pass in the sixth minute and fired in a low, 25-yard drive that Pepe Reina scrambled to safety.

After 12 minutes he raced down the inside-left channel with the ball at his feet, chased vainly by a panting Jamie Carragher but with success by Skrtel, who managed to extend a leg far enough to prod the ball behind for a corner.

The price of the Slovak's initiative was evident when he limped to the sidelines for treatment to his left knee. After a minute of attention and nine further minutes of making brave tackles and interceptions while wincing and limping, he was replaced by the venerable Finland international Sami Hyypia - not what Benitez had been hoping for, particularly with Drogba in such a rampant mood.

A couple of minutes before Skrtel's departure the Chelsea striker had been guilty of an uncharacteristic lapse when he took Frank Lampard's pass and advanced down the left, working himself into a perfect shooting position before sliding his shot across Reina but wide of the far post.

Soon he was taking Carragher on a run to the left corner flag before turning back and whipping in a cross that Ballack narrowly failed to reach.

The climax to his early endeavours came with the opening goal, its source to be found in a fine Lampard pass that took out Alvaro Arbeloa as Salomon Kalou sped away down the left flank. Kalou cut in for a shot that Reina could only parry, with Drogba the first to react. Running in from the right, he produced a side-foot shot that inserted the ball inside the near post with such power and precision that the goalkeeper deserved to be exonerated of all blame.

It was a goal in its way every bit as outstanding as the one with which Paul Scholes secured Manchester United's place in the final just over 24 hours earlier, and Drogba's celebration concluded with a 10-yard knee-slide that ended with him being flat out in front of Benitez in the dug-out, a sardonic gesture easy both to understand and to forgive.

That moment apart, he had been keeping his feet splendidly while others around him were losing their traction on turf made treacherous by an all-day drizzle.

It was not until a few minutes into the second half that, challenging Javier Mascherano for possession just outside the Liverpool area, he slipped and fell again a moment after the ball had gone, bouncing to his feet in an instant with none of the familiar pouting and gesticulating.

He had been involved in another moment of understated comedy late in the first half, after Xabi Alonso had brought down the speeding Kalou a few yards outside the Liverpool area, for which the Liverpool man received a yellow card.

As if ready to recreate their argumentative pantomime of a few days earlier, Drogba and Ballack converged on the place from which the free-kick was to be taken. Ballack picked up the ball, Drogba put it down and measured his run-up, and Ballack unleashed a drive that left Reina rooted to the spot and appeared to be heading for the net before it swerved away and rattled the supporting frame of the goal.

In an interview in L'Equipeyesterday Drogba had rejected Benitez's charges while making it clear he still plans to leave Chelsea during the summer, a reunion with Jose Mourinho, probably at Internazionale or Real Madrid, looking the most likely of the possible outcomes to his agent's negotiations.

After returning to London from the African Cup of Nations lacking fitness, and then enduring protracted problems with an inflamed left knee, he has not had an easy time of it since the new year, and the goal with which he gave Chelsea the lead last night was only his 14th of the season.

This composed, concentrated and utterly committed performance looked very much like that of a player who is intent on leaving his supporters for the past four years with the very fondest of memories.

Guardian Service