Liverpool set up that all-English semi-final last night when, against all expectations — perhaps even their own — they held Juventus to a 0-0 draw on the back of their 2-1 first-leg victory at Anfield. The English game will boast a team in the European Cup final for only the second time in 20 years.
Juventus were poor, dreadfully so, but the absence of Steven Gerrard, among others, meant that Liverpool had to overcome huge odds to prevail. They are not the opponents that Chelsea will have been expecting and, although José Mourinho and his players will recognise the obduracy that saw Liverpool through, they will be confident that they can conquer a side that lag 31 points behind them in the Barclays Premiership.
They have beaten Liverpool three times this season, but Benítez was quick to point out that Chelsea were fortunate at Anfield and required extra time in the Carling Cup final. “It will be difficult and they are favourites,” Benítez said. “They are top of the table but we don’t have anything to lose and have everything to win. The second and third times we played them this season we might have won. We were very close.”
The first game is at Stamford Bridge on April 27, with the return at Anfield on May 3. The second leg should be a raucous night on Merseyside with much of the focus, inevitably, on Gerrard. The Liverpool captain turned down a move to Stamford Bridge last summer and remains top of Roman Abramovich’s shopping list. Would a place in the European Cup final, at Chelsea’s expense, persuade him to stay? That and much more will be discussed in a frenzied build-up but, last night, Liverpool were entitled to savour their success. Progress under Benítez has not always been easy to trace, particularly with some poor domestic performances, but they were wonderfully committed and organised against Juventus. The manager’s decision to use a back three was fully vindicated and although there was no individual performance to match Roy Keane’s extraordinary heroics of six years ago, Xabi Alonso was immense. “To beat Juventus makes me very proud,” Benítez said. “We know we are inconsistent, but we have confidence in the Champions League games. You can’t doubt the spirit.”
Only the tension in the stands could sour Liverpool’s night. From their respective cages in this ugly stadium — even the Juventus fans want it demolished — both sets of supporters had thrown missiles at each other before kick-off and at half-time. They did so even as a banner with the names of the 39 victims of Heysel was carried on to the pitch. “In memory and friendship” it read, but no one can pretend that the peace initiatives have made the slightest impact on the brainless minorities on both sides of the fence.
Earlier, eight Italian fans had been arrested for attacking their Liverpool rivals in a bar with baseball bats and what trouble there was within the stadium also appeared to have been initiated by home supporters. It was minor by football’s standards of mayhem, but Uefa delegates must still have been thoroughly unimpressed by the half-hearted attempts of the stewards to stop the missiles. Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, had talked of “ drastic measures” to deal with hooliganism in the wake of the previous night’s abandonment of the Milanese derby, but, in the Stadio Delle Alpi, preventative methods seemed to amount to gentle restraint and a few announcements over the public-address system.
It had been correct to mark the 20th anniversary of Heysel with ceremonies to honour the victims, but it appears that there will always be some fans who want to sustain the tensions. No one who travels regularly with English clubs or the national team would claim that hooligans have been purged, but what used to be known as “the English disease” might justifiably be described now as more of an Italian problem.
That said, English supporters will be descending on Istanbul, scene of fighting and fatalities in the past, at the end of next month. Given the infrequency with which clubs from these shores reach the European Cup final, it must be hoped that it is an uplifting occasion.