I think the ref had a top game. At least Chelsea didn't get decisions their way with their antics.

Only qualm I have is why didn't he book them. He did the correct thing but not giving the free-kick, but if surely he could have told that it was a dive then it must warrant a booking?

Yeah I think Chelsea have the upper-hand now, and as mentioned earlier, 1 goal scored at Anfield would mean we have to score 3.

I also think Crouch should have started the game.

Who's that?

The Chubby one.

Some quality posts in here guys, Ben and Tez in particular.

Spot on about the Ferreira point; no doubt Rafa looked at him as the weak link. But why then play Zenden? I heard from a few Liverpool fans on the radio saying that he played him to protect Riise, but whatever his reason was, he cocked it up big style. Mourinho got it spot on tactically; he showed total faith in Ferreira and his boy didn't let him down. I was looking for "world class" Gerrard, and I only found him after he came out of Ashley Cole's back pocket. Great shot though. Drogba played another blinder against Liverpool, they can't handle him.

Enough about the game, Mourinho's comments. Everyone is focussing on what he said about the alleged penalty, but they forgetting why he's saying it. Mourinho is knowledgable that the Anfield crowd are very loud and can intimidate the referee into making decisions. Hence, he's putting down markers (i.e. the "penalty" outburst last night, and the constant referencing to the "no goal" two years ago) to sway the referee to give them a favourable decision in the 2nd leg. That's all it is and fair play. Fergie's been doing that for years. Great managers do. I wish our Martin Jol could say things like that more often instead of being the Big Friendly Giant.

I read that Reina thought the Chelsea players were tiring in the 2nd half, maybe they were. But the worrying thing from a Liverpool angle was they created virtually nothing (except a speculative volley from Gerrard) in 90 minutes against a side who have been playing flat out for the past few weeks. It's all well and good being fresher, but you still have to create and take chances.

The second leg is nicely set up, but don't expect a classic. How many games between these two have been crackers? Rafa will look to be on the front foot pretty much from the off. Mourinho will probably look to settle for a 0-0 at half time. Then, at the start of the 2nd half, try to nick the away goal. That's the way I'd play it anyway. A goal then would kill the Anfield atmospshere as they know they'd need three. They'll have Essien and maybe Ballack back for this so they'll have more power in the centre.

Overall, I'd put the tie 70:30 in Chelsea's favour.

Now that sounds great to me bud.

I havnt thought of it like that, Maybe he is trying to get into the mind of the referee for the next leg. But he did the same thing on Sunday by moaning about the other penalty decision.

Exactly, he's doing it again so referees are under pressure to give penalties against United. You could say it's his way of addressing the balance of decisions. If he kept his mouth shut about United getting away with these penalty shouts, then referees would probably carry on doing it. By highlighting the issue, and knowing that everyone will be talking about it, he knows this will create pressure on the referees.

boooooooooooring game

I hope for the second leg

very interesting point Johlado, i also never thought of it like that. When you look it at from that angle you have to take your hat off to him, because that will now surely be in the back of the mind of who ever takes charge of that match. But i think it would probably have more affect in the Prem, as a ref coming in from abroad might not all the background behind what he is saying. Still very clever though.

The match now stands very much in Chelsea's favour. The worrying point you raised was that we didnt really create anything substantial throughout the game, where as Chelsea created plenty. I know at Anfield we are likely to create more, but i doubt whether we have the fire power to take advantage of this.

Get in Criag Lindfield from the u18's. PLayed quality this season and last night in Youth Cup Final.

Is anyone else loving the exchange of words between Rafa and Jose?

The latest gem from Rafa:

He said: 'We know him. I have some friends in Portugal and it is the same in Portugal. Everyone knows him and why he says things.

'Sometimes when you have a very good team and a very good squad and some of the best players in the world, you don't need to do all these things.'

I reckon even the european referees can feel the pressure from Mourinho. Take the Anders Frisk incident for example. Mourinho tried to humiliate him by saying that he let Rijkaard into his referee's room at half time in the 1st leg 2 seasons back. What happened in the 2nd leg? Carvalho pulls back Valdes but the referee doesn't spot it and Terry's winning goal stands. Maybe it was a genuine error by the referee, or maybe it was because he felt he had to prove to Mourinho that UEFA wasn't comspiring against Chelsea and he bottled the decision.

Just a thought, I could be wrong.

Sorry I didn't get on here sooner to make a response....anyway, So that was a brutal performance by Liverpool....I'm not a fan of benetiz...I don't know what he's thinking playing Zenden and the freaking guy keeps on trying to make crosses into the box but Ferrara has him marked...AND, why the hell wasn't Finnan or Sissoko played? Arbeloa is nowhere near as good as Finnan and I feel that he should have definately been featured.


Plays Gerrard on the right where he can't do as much damage as he can being played in the middle...

Liverpool need to pick themselves up big time for the next game otherwise they are going under...it's frustrating to see Rafa's silly tactics.

At the end of the day, against this current Chelsea squad a 1-0 loss at the Bridge ain't a bad result at all. Liverpool can beat them at Anfield no doubt. And that one goal difference won't mean too much, unless Chelsea get themselves an away goal.

I think his initial decision was:

RB: Finnan
LB: Arbeloa
LW: Riise

But because Finnan is injured, everything was messed up.

So there you go ...

It could be messed up for Chelsea too now; they've lost momentum in the title fight and they might lose Carvalho. They looked suspect against set pieces today, both goals coming from balls into the box.

Crouch will surely start on Tuesday now.

We cant mess this up too, so i voted for us. Go Chelsea!

If I was Mourinho, I'd play Khalid Boulahrouz alongside Terry in the centre of defence. By playing Essien there, you're losing so much energy and drive in the midfield, and besides, Essien isn't great at centre back. See Davies' goal today? He was nowhere. Remember the 2-0 game at Anfield? A long ball between Ferreira and Essien and goal. Essien's brilliant but he's not tall enough to handle strikers that are good in the air, so when you're up against Kuyt and especially Crouch, I'd be inclined to play the taller Dutchman with JT.

Stick Essien in the center of defence Jose you moaning B!tch

Yeah, I totally agree with you, Johaldo8. We need Essien in the midfield against Alonso and Gerrard. I don't know why Mourinho keeps putting him in defence all the time, when we have Bouhlarouz, who prefers that role.

Changing sides?

Dear dear me bendover, whats up - Lost you're dummy?

lol, awful. Come on billy, i thought your banter would be better than that. poor show!


If you have nout good to say, at least make your banter good/funny.

We've got Manuel Gonzalez as the Referee for the Chelsea game, The same Ref from the Champions League final in 2005. Jose will be glad to hear he awarded us a penalty in that game He also turned us down on one aswell though

thats right Tez, and then they went down the other end and scored!