IT was, in the end, an outcome with perfect symmetry.As Rafa Benitez and Liverpool head for the Acropolis and other crumbling reminders of antiquity, Jose Mourinho’s Euro dream lies in ruins.
Any Champions League semi-final defeat is a killer but to lose in a penalty shootout is death by a thousand cuts.
So a Chelsea season that, in Benitez’s tongue-in-cheek words, offered “trophies, trophies, trophies” only Saturday morning is now in tatters.
Well, there’s still an inaugural and high-profile FA Cup final at the new Wembley but how much stomach for that will Chelsea have after the events of last night?
At the end — as Dirk Kuyt’s winning penalty went in — Anfield was a sea of red.
And in the middle, the blue-shirted men from Stamford Bridge began a sad, painful walk towards the dressing room. A sea of misery.
A Bridge of Sighs.
Didier Drogba lashed out with his right foot at invisible demons, Mikel John Obi hid his tear-stained face in his jersey while the bare-chested Frank Lampard and John Terry went over to applaud their dumbstruck supporters.
Mourinho, wandering aimlessly among his players, didn’t really know what to do. What a diabolical way to go.
Springing out of the directors’ box, the sprightly figure of the silver-haired George Gillett went over to shake hands with ecstatic Liverpool supporters.
I doubt the new American owner has experienced anything like this.
But where, pray, was Roman Abramovich?
Hide nor hair was seen of the billionaire Chelsea owner, the man who had poured his vast wealth into the club with the express purpose of bringing the Champions League trophy to Stamford Bridge for the first time.
How could he have gone missing on a night like this? You can only deduce there is unfinished business between him and Mourinho. Or, perhaps, his own business may be finished at the Bridge.
In the end, few will deny Liverpool deserved it. Only the errant flag of a linesman rubbed out a perfectly good Dirk Kuyt goal for offside that would have rendered the shootout unnecessary.
Daniel Agger had levelled the tie on aggregate after just 21 minutes, Petr Cech made a stupendous save from Peter Crouch’s 56th-minute header with his feet and, two minutes later, Kuyt thumped the bar with his own header.
Then, deep into second-half extra time, Cech again made a spectacular stop from Kuyt.
On those chances alone, this was Liverpool’s game and Liverpool’s night.
But don’t take anything away from Chelsea, the team that refused to die until, in the very last minute, they surrendered their 24-game unbeaten run.
As the match went into extra time, Anfield paid this seemingly indestructable team the ultimate compliment by booing them every time they touched the ball.
That showed just how concerned Liverpool fans were that the holy grail of the Champions League final might still be snatched from their grasp.
And, incredibly, Mourinho’s side grew stronger in the closing stages with Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Didier Drogba somehow finding extra reserves of energy.
It had been a Hurculean effort by this Chelsea side in their 60th game of the season.
For yet another 120 minutes they had shown all the character that has made them such an overwhelming force for the last three years.
Until the last dagger thrust that was Kuyt’s winner from the spot, they had fought every inch of the way.
And they had to do it without Ricardo Carvalho, Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack.
How ironic that the Ukrainian and the German, bought as the final stepping-stones to Champions League glory, should have been absent on the most important night of Chelsea’s season.
Ballack had gone back to Germany for an ankle operation that went ahead without either Mourinho’s knowledge or blessing.
As for Shevchenko, he was apparently nursing a groin strain.
He materialised in the directors box just before kick-off. But how Chelsea needed the Shevchenko of old, the second highest goalscorer in Champions League history, in the box that really counted.
I hope these two so-called megastars can look at themselves in the mirror this morning.
Without them, an already steep haul up the moutainside was made almost vertical.
As for the pre-match jousting between Mourinho and Benitez, the Spaniard had piled immense pressure on his arch rival with the sort of caustic verbal foreplay that had previously been Mourinho’s preserve.
Most damning of all had been the observation that the one trophy Abramovich coveted above all others was the Champions League - and Mourinho needed to deliver.
The Liverpool fans added their thoughts - and voices - when they gave the Chelsea boss a severe coating as he made his way to the dug-out.
Up on the Kop, a banner read: “Jose, the Special One? My Arse.”
Mourinho, though, was unperturbed - politely applauding and loving every minute of it. At that stage.
At the end, though, he looked lost.
And where does he go from here? First call will be the Emirates on Sunday where a huge crowd will be waiting to hammer home the final nail.
Then he has to get his side up for Manchester United at Wembley. Should Chelsea lose there, the season will really have turned into a living nightmare.
As for Liverpool, it’s on to Athens and a second Champions League Final in three seasons.
How ironic they should get there on the back of a penalty shoot-out - the very manner in which they beat AC Milan in 2005. Surely, this is something the English are not very good at?
Then again the huge banner unfurled on the Kop before the game did read: “We’re Scouse not English”.
By:STEVEN HOWARD
Date:02 May 2007
Credit:www.thesun.co.uk
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