my liverpool fc

Yet, an enthralling, tempestuous Champions League semi-final edged into 30 additional minutes as Liverpool's innate refusal to surrender at the feet of such bitter rivals resurfaced once more. Daniel Agger aimed a dagger at the heart of Chelsea's depleted defence to cancel out their slender first-leg lead inside 22 minutes and leave Mourinho rueing his side's failure to arrive at Anfield with a more meaningful advantage as a season once destined for greatness teetered on the brinkof anti-climax. Had Dirk Kuyt's second-half header not thumped Petr Cech's crossbar then a trip to Athens would have been just deserts for a dominant Liverpool display that left Chelsea's bold talk appear just hollow rhetoric. The Kop, a swirling, seething mass of red and white, supplied the wall of noise for which it is famed, though the suspicion lingered that it would take more than 42,000 Scousers intent on screaming themselves hoarse to outmanoeuvre familiar foes. Inspiration from the terraces was duly reciprocated on the pitch as Liverpool set about exposing the inadequacies that have crept into Chelsea's creaking performances of late. Unlike in 2005, there was not the early goal that Benitez craved but it was to his players' immense credit that they kept their composure and worked their way to a crescendo that reaped a fitting reward. A 15th meeting in what has developed into an epic saga between two sworn enemies over three seasons should have left little room for surprises.