José Mourinho might dispute the validity of Luis García’s winning goal that evening, saying last night that he will continue to do so until his “dying day”, but, whatever he may call it — “the phantom goal”, “the goal that never was” — few neutrals would deny that Liverpool were worthy winners over the two legs.
“We know that it will be a difficult game, but we can beat them,” Benítez said in a press conference at Anfield yesterday afternoon. “We did it last season and we know how to do it again. They have the same strong points as last time and maybe the same weak points as well. I am sure that they have weak points and we will try to find those weak points.” What they are, Benítez would not say, but with his squad seemingly lacking the width needed to stretch a Chelsea defence that has conceded only one goal in seven Barclays Premiership matches this season, it seems likely that he will look to Peter Crouch, his towering centre forward, to unsettle John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho.
The pace of Djibril Cissé is another intriguing option for Benítez, given the problems that Milan Baros, who has since left for Aston Villa, caused in last season’s semifinal, although it is far from certain that the France forward will be recalled to the starting line-up.
If anything, Benítez is more likely to err on the side of caution, to judge from his suggestion yesterday that the stakes are far lower in a group game than they were in last season’s semi-final. Sami Hyypia struck on something when he said that victory over Chelsea might be more crucial when the teams return to Anfield for a Premiership fixture on Sunday.
“For me, maybe Sunday’s game will be more important to win than this,” the defender said. “Also, for the Premiership in general, it would be good if we can beat them on Sunday.”
Beating Chelsea remains easier said than done, but Hyypia hit the mark again when he said that talking up the opposition was selfdefeating. “Chelsea are not from another planet,” he said. “They’re a very good team with a very good manager, they have a lot of quality up front, they don’t concede a lot of goals and it’s not easy to beat them. But no one expected us to beat them last May. They’re just a team with 11 players and we have beaten them before.”
Encouraging words, carrying a much-needed reminder that it is Liverpool and not Chelsea who are the champions of Europe. Mourinho and Roman Abramovich do not always get what they want, a fact that will be borne out when Steven Gerrard leads out his home-town team this evening, having come so close to succumbing to the London club’s overtures during the summer.
Hyypia admitted yesterday that he had feared Gerrard was on his way out of Anfield, but contrary to some of the eulogies penned at the time, it took more than Gerrard to inspire Liverpool to the European Cup and tonight it will require superhuman endeavours from 11 players, 40,000 passionate Scousers and a portly Spaniard with a chalkboard if Chelsea are to be exposed as mere mortals once more.