It is very frustrating forev. He said before the game we were going to attack, but his actions hardly lived up to his words. I trust and respect Rafa hugely, but i just think he got it all wrong here. If we end up going through, and not letting in a goal, you could argue he didnt do to badly, but we didnt play well and at the moment it clearly looks like an error.

Amy i see what you are getting at, we have had a lot of trouble down that left hand side this season with injuries and what not. But what i would have probably done, is if he didnt want to play Gonzalez, play Bellamy down the left to exploit Ferrera's vunrability. I know he is not a left midfield player, but we just needed some penetration, as we lacked ballance and pace from midfield. Gonzalez, although not the best of players might have been able to stretch Chelsea a bit. When ever we tried to break we never had any pace to allow us to do so.

One thing i will add though is how much of a twit did Mourinho make himself look after the game!!!! "it was a blatant penalty" "why dont we get penalties?"! take a look at the game Jose and you will quite clearly see the ball is OUT of the box! free kick not penalty! MUG!

i understand what you are saying. By saying Rafa got it wrong, i am not trying to take anything away from Chelsea. You were the better team, and the result reflects that. It is just annoying, as we knew we had a genuine chance of getting a good result last night, yet i feel Rafa's selection let us down a bit.

Fair point, the tie is far from over though, at your place it's going to be harder than last night.Hope Zenden plays in the second leg

Zenden is the worst player I ever seen play professional football..Sh!tebag. Wouldnt make it into r Sunday morning side

I was watching Chelsea tv after the match. They interviewed Jose 'god' Mourinho and he admitted he got it wrong... But oh what a surprise, the press didnt show that clip!

he never said he got it wrong, he just said it was a handball, without mentioning the penalty bit

I forgot to mention Drogba, his rolling around was a Disgrace Last night... amusing at times though. Drogba should watch this before doing it next time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAPXGuRIXsA

it was bang out of order! he did it at one point when Kuyt was attacking who had to stop.

And another time he was lying right next to the touch line with Mourinho on the pitch checking on him. Disgrace.

I would also like to point out J Cole should have been booked for diving therfor meaning he would be out the 2nd leg.

lmao just listen to them,,,, and Chelsea have only won the first leg.

Imagine if Chelsea go through.

what do you mean listen to them? we have quite clearly stated Chelsea deserved the win. you are just trying to stir things. Drogba's behaviour was just like his managers, laughable.

I love it..... Gerrard does'nt dive about much tho does he.... LOL

At least our jose TRIED to show some sportsmanship by TRYING to shake slobber chops hand, slobbering raffa didn't wanna know though...

Now that's laughable son.

Watched this match this morning, was some good football from Chelsea. Really were the only team that looked like scoring in the first half.

In the 2nd half Liverpool pushed Riise further forward and got Gerrard involved in the game a bit more which helped and they created a few chances.

Chelsea deserved the win and must go to Anfield as firm favourites now, good luck to them.

what a load of pointless drivel. What has that got to do with anything? Did Gerrard dive last night? no! by you saying that you are leaving yourself open for me to say
A Cole, J Cole, Lamapard, they dont dive do they? lol, dont be stupid! Drogba was mentioned cos on at least 3 occasions he was play acting. He had gained many peoples respect for his performances this season, and leaving that side of his game behind, but did it all over again last night, and was out of order!




OUR jose, bluenose, LOL, changing teams i say, your so loyal! and i dont believe you about the shaking of hands. If you can get me proof that they didnt then i will take it back, but until then i will just see that as another one of your many cheap jibes and pointless posts.

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.