NEWS : Chelsea survive Liverpool onslaught
Chelsea survived a huge scare to reach the Champions League semi-finals after an amazing 4-4 draw against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge.
The result saw Guus Hiddink's men through 7-5 on aggregate, but they came back from two goals down on the night and then had to survive a late Liverpool flurry to set up a last-four tie against Barcelona.
However classy the Liga leaders, they cannot possibly provide entertainment to match this.
First-half goals from Fabio Aurelio and Xabi Alonso, with a penalty, drew Liverpool level on aggregate following Chelsea's 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge in the first leg.
Didier Drogba, Alex and Frank Lampard replied after the break to seemingly put the home side in complete command.
But Lucas Leiva and Dirk Kuyt struck twice within the space of 60 seconds to leave Liverpool needing just one more goal from the final eight minutes.
Lampard finally settled it in the 89th minute with a shot that rebounded in off both posts.
It provided huge relief for a Chelsea side that spent the first half looking like prime candidates for another of Liverpool's classic European ambushes, even with Steven Gerrard sidelined by injury.
Most teams would have given up hope after they were totally outclassed in the first leg, conceding three goals at home and looking a pale shadow of themselves.
Others would have thrown in the towel after hearing that their talismanic captain would miss second leg after failing to recover from a groin strain.
Not Liverpool.
The game started ordinarily enough, with the pragmatic Benitez telling his players not to gamble too much, too early.
Then, with a quarter of an hour gone, Liverpool sensed their opponents' lack of attacking ambition and started to dominate.
Manchester United will bear testament to Aurelio's set-piece ability, having borne the brunt of his left foot in Liverpool's recent 4-1 win at Old Trafford.
But everybody thought the Brazilian would cross when presented with a free-kick on the right side over 30 yards from goal on 19 minutes.
Everybody included Petr Cech, who took one step too many to his right and watched helplessly as the alert Aurelio drilled a low shot into the unprotected right corner of the net.
It was a brilliant feat of imagination and execution, and one that sparked panic in the home ranks.
The tension was palpable when Aurelio stepped up to deliver another long-range free-kick just before the half-hour mark, and it provoked Ricardo Carvalho to make a crass challenge, throwing both arms around Alonso to concede a clear penalty.
The Spaniard, having been awarded the kick by his compatriot Luis Medina Cantalejo, dusted himself down and drove the ball confidently into the left corner as Cech dived the other way.
The goalkeeper was completely rattled, and proceeded nearly to gift Liverpool a third. First he was nearly caught out by a looping Kuyt header that he eventually tipped over, then he completely missed a subsequent cross into the area.
Nobody was more relieved to hear the half-time whistle.
At the break, the question was not how Liverpool could possibly win by three at Stamford Bridge, but how Chelsea could possibly stop them.
The second period started just as the first ended; with a Cech blunder. The Czech came rashly out of his goal but was beaten to a through-ball by Lucas.
Cech was left a helpless spectator as Lucas played it back to Aurelio whose chip from a tight angle floated wide of the far post.
But everything changed in the 51st minute as Cech's opposite number produced a horrible blunder of his own.
Substitute Nicolas Anelka crossed low from the right for Drogba who helped the ball goalwards, and Pepe Reina could only fumble the ball into his own net.
If Chelsea's first goal was fortunate, their second was emphatic. Drogba had just seen a free-kick pass a foot wide and bounce back into the net - leading many fans to mistakenly believe he had scored.
But there was no doubt about Alex's free-kick a minute later as Drogba stepped aside and let the Brazilian smash a swerving long-range effort past Reina.
Chelsea were in complete control, and appeared to settle matters when Drogba wriggled past his man and set up Lampard for a low finish on 76 minutes.
It looked even more over when Fernando Torres was taken off for David Ngog with 10 minutes left, yet within 120 seconds of Torres's exit Liverpool had scored twice.
First Michael Essien's shoulder deflected a speculative Lucas shot past Cech, then Kuyt headed Albert Riera's cross emphatically in from close range.
Having learned a harsh lesson from sitting back earlier in the game, Chelsea continued to attack and got their reward when Lampard's shot from the edge of the box hit one upright, then the other, then the back of the net.
There was still time for Essien to clear a Ngog shot off the line with a diving header but Liverpool could not mount a third comeback.
Who said these Chelsea-Liverpool games are always boring?
