UEFA Champions League/Liverpool 1 Chelsea 1:THE LOCALS delight in reminding Chelsea what they think of their comparatively modest list of achievements down the years on occasions like this. "You ain't got no history," goes the printable part of the chant, but after John Arne Riise turned Saloman Kalou's low drive into his net as last night's contest neared the end of its 94th and last minute, it is the visitors whose European future looks the brighter ahead of next Wednesday's return leg.
The goal was hailed by Petr Cech as the stroke of luck his side had lacked in their previous meetings with the five-time European Champions, and it left the home players reeling when they must have thought they would travel to Stamford Bridge with Dirk Kuyt's 43rd-minute goal to defend.
Instead, they must now end a run of eight visits to west London without scoring if they are to have any chance of going to Moscow next month.
Though Rafael Benitez was understandably disappointed afterwards, claiming his side had created the better chances and even questioning the decision to play four minutes of added time, the equaliser will have been viewed in the other camp as a reward for the determination the visitors showed to rescue something late on from what looked set to be another night of frustration.
All the more so given several of Chelsea's biggest names simply failed to perform.
Not that they hadn't known what to expect. The Londoners had come looking for their first Champions League win at Anfield in four attempts with eight of the team that had started last year's defeat at the same stage of the competition. Liverpool retained four of the 11 that began last May, and it was hard to pick an area of the pitch in which the changes weren't for the better.
Chelsea's start might still have been the brighter, but they made little of the chances that came their way. Early corners by Frank Lampard and Florent Malouda were wasted, while Didier Drogba drove a free, from a promising position similar to the one from which he opened the scoring against Tottenham in the English League Cup final, rather casually into the wall.
Avram Grant was much derided for his team selection that day at Wembley, where the absence of Joe Cole was felt to have robbed his side of their most creative attacking influence. But here the England international was largely an onlooker as Fabio Aurelio and Javier Mascherano combined well to keep him at bay.
The one occasion the Londoner did elude them, to meet a nicely-weighted Frank Lampard ball over the defence, his first touch let him down badly and Pepe Reina calmly scooped up the loose ball.
It was Chelsea's best chance of the half and, with the exception of a penalty claim seven minutes later when Drogba went down under a challenge from Jamie Carragher, which was reckoned to have involved the defender getting a touch on the ball, they were clearly second-best from then until Kalou replaced Cole just over an hour in.
As guilty as their opponents of wasting possession early on, Liverpool now started to find their stride. Steven Gerrard sprung into action with a first-time ball that sent Fernando Torres scurrying goalwards, but the Spaniard's shot was straight at Cech and Ricardo Carvalho was able to hoof the ball to safety.
Sensing, perhaps, that neither Joe Cole nor Malouda were posing the anticipated threat, Liverpool's full backs began to press forward, while inside them Mascherano and Xabi Alonso were starting to get a firm upper hand against Michael Ballack and the clearly out-of-sorts Lampard.
Having been one of the visiting side's more effective players over the preceding 40 minutes or so, Ballack was the first Chelsea player to contribute something to Liverpool's build-up to the opening goal by needlessly impeding Torres' attempt to chase the German's back pass. Xabi Alonso duly sent the outstanding Dirk Kuyt away down the right with a quick free kick, and after John Terry had dived low to cut out the cross, Lampard was caught in possession by the Dutchman, Alonso fed Mascherano whose chipped ball back to the striker eluded Claude Makelele.
With his third touch in the move, Kuyt succeeded where Torres had failed, coolly slipping the ball low past the onrushing Cech for his fourth goal in this European campaign.
With the noise within the stadium now soaring, Liverpool took control in the early stages of the second half. Chelsea looked rattled, and there were several attempts on their goal: a 25-yard Ryan Babel shot that flew just wide of the right post was the best of them.
While the home side's movement and passing got better, their visitors were reduced to playing long balls in the direction of Drogba, who barely managed a decent first touch over the course of the contest. And when the striker did produce a touch of class, as when he turned nicely on the edge of the box and played the ball short into the path of Lampard, the midfielder passed up the chance of a first-time shot and then ran out of space before he could get one away at all.
Kalou's arrival improved things, but Liverpool had chances to finish the game. Alonso and Torres forced good saves during the closing stages from Cech, whose reaction saves were superb even if he repeatedly looked suspect under Gerrard's corners.
Still, the home side must have thought they had done enough to win the game. Instead, it is Chelsea who take the same narrow advantage into the second leg that Liverpool did when they faced Arsenal in the quarter-finals.
LIVERPOOL: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio (Riise 61), Kuyt, Alonso, Mascherano, Babel (Benayoun 75), Gerrard, Torres. Subs not used: Itandje, Hyypia, Crouch, Pennant, Lucas.
CHELSEA: Cech, Ferreira, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Lampard, Makelele, Ballack (Anelka 86), Joe Cole (Kalou 63), Drogba, Malouda. Subs not used: Hilario, Shevchenko, Obi, Alex, Belletti. Booked: Terry.
Referee: Konrad Plautz (Austria).
