Frank Lampard’s penalty and a Didier Drogba brace send Chelsea through to their first Champions League Final, beating Liverpool 3-2 in extra time.
John Arne Riise’s stoppage-time own goal at Anfield gave Chelsea the upper hand in this semi-final, although the Reds had eliminated their London rivals at this stage in both 2005 and 2007. Frank Lampard returned to the side after compassionate leave, while Michael Essien was back from a ban.
Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack tested Jose Reina from distance and the Ivory Coast striker should’ve done better when flashing a shot across the face of goal from a promising position.
Petr Cech ran out to close down Fernando Torres with his chest, but Chelsea had the brighter start and opened the scoring on 33 minutes. Salomon Kalou may have been offside when he ran on to Lampard’s ball and brought a save out of Reina, but the goalkeeper could do nothing on Drogba’s follow-up from a tight angle.
Ballack thought he had made it 2-0, but his free kick cracked against the stanchion with Reina rooted to the spot.
After the restart Dirk Kuyt, who netted in the first leg, saw his tap-in brilliantly denied by Cech’s reflexes, and Torres equalised to level the tie on the night and on aggregate. Yossi Benayoun skipped past several Chelsea shirts and threaded through for the Spaniard to roll past a helpless Cech.
Essien struck the side-netting at the end of a strong run, but the semi-final went to extra time as it was all-square on away goals.
Some desperate defending took Riise’s cross off the heads of Javier Mascherano and Torres at the back post, then Sami Hyypia nodded another effort wide. But Chelsea also threatened as Drogba pounced on an error and Jamie Carragher’s last-gasp tackle closed him down.
From the resulting corner Essien thumped into the net and thought he had given the home side the lead, but only after celebrations did they notice the linesman and Italian referee Roberto Rosetti had flagged offside because Drogba was standing in front of Reina.
Moments later Rosetti was in the thick of it again as he awarded a penalty for Hyypia’s mistimed tackle on Ballack. Lampard stepped up and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way, emotionally kissing the black armband to celebrate. In his first game since his mother passed away, Lampard sent Chelsea to their first European Cup Final.
Ryan Babel surprisingly replaced Torres and had penalty appeals waved away with his first touch for a clean Essien tackle. Cech smothered a Xabi Alonso header, but Chelsea had the momentum now and put the result beyond doubt when Drogba smashed in his second at the near post from substitute Nicolas Anelka’s cutback.
Hyypia had a penalty denied for Drogba’s challenge, but Babel got Liverpool back into it with three minutes left. He unleashed a rocket from 30 metres and seemed to take Cech by surprise, who got a hand to it but couldn’t keep it out of the top corner, though it was too late to stage a fightback.
Chelsea will face Manchester United in the Final in Moscow.
Chelsea 3-2 Liverpool aet (4-3 on agg)
Scorers: Drogba 33, 114 (C), Torres 64 (L), Lampard pen 98 (C), Babel 117 (L)
Chelsea: Cech; Essien, Carvalho, Terry, A Cole; J Cole (Anelka 91), Ballack, Makelele, Lampard (Shevchenko 119), Kalou (Malouda 70); Drogba
Liverpool: Reina; Arbeloa, Carragher, Skrtel (Hyypia 22), Riise; Alonso, Mascherano; Kuyt, Gerrard, Benayoun (Pennant 78); Torres (Babel 99)
Ref: Rosetti (Ita)
