This semi-final is yet to begin in earnest. A mediocre match almost tipped the balance towards Liverpool by one degree from the horizontal but Xabi Alonso's late booking for a foul on Eidur Gudjohnsen means the scales have not budged in the least. The playmaker will now be suspended.
Jose Mourinho is one of the few people who can be inspired to a bout of nostalgia by a goalless draw at home. Chelsea put Manchester United out of the League Cup after such a result this season and his Champions League-winning Porto came through the semi-final with Deportivo la Coruña last year in the same manner.
His is a personal satisfaction and enjoyment was severely rationed for others. Liverpool, however, carried off some interesting nuggets of evidence. Jerzy Dudek made no noteworthy saves but Petr Cech had to pull off two for Chelsea. Mourinho had better not take for granted his team's security on Merseyside.
Placed in the context of Chelsea's meetings with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, this was a glaringly deficient game. From the Stamford Bridge perspective it was easy to identify what and whom it lacked. At 5pm Damien Duff failed a fitness test on his hamstring so comprehensively that the club must quake over his prospects of recovering for the return. Arjen Robben is in better condition but an ankle problem is causing him pain and he came on for only the last half-hour.
Liverpool for much of the season were the club undermined by injuries. A role reversal may be in process. Rafael Benítez has no cause to abandon the belief that his team will snatch the place in the final that hitherto seemed earmarked for Chelsea.
Liverpool are difficult to breach in European competition and from the outset there were sufficient overtones of the 0-0 draw with Juventus to suggest that the Stadio delle Alpi performance would be restaged here.
Mourinho's Chelsea, though, could never plod through a contest as the Serie A side had done. Though their attacks were not as deftly articulated as usual, Joe Cole realised he would have to provide the bulk of the team's runs from his flank because Gudjohnsen, on the left, always moves inside to link with the midfield.
The Icelander did release Cole with a pass that sprang the offside trap after 14 minutes but, although Didier Drogba got the break of the ball from the ensuing cross, he screwed his finish well wide.
Within five minutes a better opportunity was made on the left. When Drogba laid play out to William Gallas he worked the ball on to his right foot and flighted a deep delivery. Cole, outjumping Djimi Traoré, headed down but Frank Lampard, often the midfield marksman, fired high.
Liverpool were not breathing heavily, though, and in a game of a jerky quality there were menacing lurches into Chelsea's area where Ricardo Carvalho for once did not hold sway. Gathering a pass from Alonso in the 19th minute, John Arne Riise came across the Portugal defender but, having put the ball on to his unfavoured right foot, could do no more than steer a finish which Cech dealt with. Six minutes before half-time the goalkeeper made a better save to tip away a Milan Baros header from Steven Gerrard's cross.
Liverpool are at last ready to be measured by the Chelsea standard. On this ground in November the only ambitions they had were for damage limitation before Cole's goal beat them in the Premiership fixture. In the League Cup final two months ago an immediate opener for Liverpool threw them into such confusion that they passed the ball miserably before succumbing to Chelsea.
They were more enterprising and mature here. By half-time there were valid complaints about the patchiness of the match but that met with Benítez's appreciation in a first leg that was deaf to Chelsea's demands. Robben, sore ankle or not, could not be left to convalesce in the dug-out. With defenders taking up too much of the credit, the match was in need of whatever flair his half-fit body could offer.
There was, of course, dutiful appreciation for the steadfastness of men such as Sami Hyypia. Even when he made the mistake that invited Cole to round Traoré, he recovered to terminate Cole's run inside the penalty area.
Perhaps each manager was too adept at laying his plans. Lampard and Gerrard both used the ball well enough but had no scope to be overwhelming. That snuffer-out-in-chief Claude Makelele was the true lord of the midfield.
The game at Anfield must belong to whoever can ignite the evening.