Blogs Dashboard

For the second time in three seasons, Liverpool’s passionate fans were worth a place in the Champions League final at Chelsea’s expense.

Coach Rafa Benitez, who described the Anfield crowd as Liverpool’s “12th man” and 40,000 “special ones” in a barbed reference to Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, was quick to pay tribute to the ‘wall of noise’, as the supporters were described over at Red Cauldron today.

Led by the massed ranks of the Kop choir, the supporters had cheered and sung the whole night, though their biggest contribution came when it counted most — in the penalty shootout.

Boudewijn Zenden’s opening strike was greeted by the kind of celebratory roar usually reserved for a 25-metre screamer from Steven Gerrard into the top corner.

Within seconds, the sound effects switched to ear-splitting whistles and boos as Chelsea’s Arjen Robben stepped up for a spot-kick which keeper Jose Reina was able to save.

Xabi Alonso converted for Liverpool, as did Frank Lampard for Chelsea despite the boo-boys’ best efforts, and the Kop still hadn’t finished singing “Steve Gerrard, Gerrard” to the tune of “Que Sera, Sera” when the Liverpool skipper swept his penalty past Petr Cech.

Geremi, who Mourinho said afterwards converted a lot of spot-kicks in training, lost his touch at Anfield as he too failed to beat a brilliant Reina, setting up Dutchman Dirk Kuyt to score the winner for 4-1.

The moral of the story is that teams need to finish Liverpool off when they are away from their lion’s den. Or maybe UEFA should just give all visiting teams a one-goal start when they go to Liverpool.

Trevor Huggins is a Reuters sports reporter based in London