la presse anglaise

The Telegraph

Master Benitez keeps Chelsea in check

By Roy Collins at Old Trafford
(Filed: 23/04/2006)
Chelsea 1 Liverpool 2

The managers of these two sides know one another's tactical gambits as intimately as two chess grandmasters, which is why so many of their 10 encounters over the past two seasons have ended in stalemate.

But Liverpool's Rafael Benitez produced a stunning checkmate here to take his team to the FA Cup final for the first time in five years and ruin Chelsea's dream of their first League and Cup Double. A little of Chelsea's cloak of invincibility also went with it, despite a spirited comeback that made this perhaps the most thrilling FA Cup semi-final since Arsenal and Manchester United in 1999.

For all Liverpool's brilliance and first-half dominance, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho might consider he fell for Fool's Mate, having tinkered with his team as disastrously as his predecessor Claudio Ranieri. In doing so he stripped it of its most potent performers; leaving his wingers on the bench was like sending out the Royal Philharmonic without a first violin.

Only when all his big-name performers were reunited on the Old Trafford turf did Chelsea turn a one-sided encounter into the sort of red-blooded affair we had anticipated from two of the country's heavyweights. Yet it took a mis-timed punch by Liverpool goalkeeper Jose Reina in the 71st minute to get Chelsea back into the game, leaving Didier Drogba with a simple header.

Having been tortured by Chelsea on occasions in the past two years, Liverpool's two wins have come in two of the most meaningful games - they also won last year's Champions League semi-final. And although Chelsea are primed to win their second successive Premiership when they face Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, the champagne will taste flatter after this.

Winning back-to-back Premierships is a brilliant achievement, one previously managed only by the club that call this magnificent theatre home. Yet for Mourinho, a manager who could realistically set his sights on world domination because of the limitless funds of owner Roman Abramovich, this season will feel like a backward step after the way his team were also outclassed by Barcelona in Europe.

Liverpool were the beneficiaries of the bewildering new interpretation of the offside law with their winner at Blackburn last Sunday. But they were almost its victims here when Drogba, ambling back from a deeply offside position, was waved on by referee Graham Poll when he turned to run on to a Frank Lampard through ball midway through the first half.

Liverpool were saved only by the profligacy of Drogba, who did not even force Reina to lay a glove on his shot. And two minutes later Liverpool were in front with a free-kick routine that has probably never worked so sweetly on the training ground. After John Terry had been penalised for foot up on the edge of the penalty area, John Arne Riise stroked the ball three yards to Steven Gerrard, who simply blocked it to allow his colleague to sweep it home with his second touch.

Mourinho surprised ever-yone by dropping Joe Cole, probably in the best form of his Stamford Bridge life, and ignoring the wing skills of Arjen Robben and Damien Duff to play full-back Paulo Ferreira on the wide right.

Maybe he just wanted to freshen up the tactical battle because of the familiarity between the sides. Chelsea, however, might have been surprised by Harry Kewell, unrecognisable from the forlorn performer they faced last season when everyone but Benitez had given up on him.

As well as a swiftly delivered early cross from the left that served as a warning, he drifted inside, not to hide from the action but to influence it more directly, even turning up on the right wing to cut in and shoot with the authority of a player full of confidence.

So many other Liverpool men were also ready to stretch their imagination and lung power to the limit that, for once, Gerrard became just one of the supporting cast. But in time added on in the first half he eased past Asier Del Horno before pulling back a cross from which Luis Garcia should have scored.

After a Terry effort early in the second half was ruled out for a foul, Garcia put an easier chance wide, his blushes saved by a linesman's offside flag, before gloriously chipping Liverpool's second past Carlo Cudicini after 53 minutes.

Chelsea, we knew, would produce a response. But it was not enough to take them into extra time. If the build-up to this game was once again soured by a mutual slanging match between the managers, the football for once had the last word.
The Observer

Purring Benitez has the edge in Iberian catfights

Ian Whittell
Sunday April 23, 2006
The Observer

The referee, Liverpool's inherent inferiority, his own players' lack of form and uncharacteristic personal errors; nobody and nothing were spared in Jose Mourinho's post-match verdict on this FA Cup semi-final but when the Chelsea manager's subjective analysis had concluded, one unavoidable fact remained - Liverpool, not Chelsea, will face Middlesbrough or West Ham in next month's final.
Mourinho was in vintage form, from the moment he bristled at suggestions that he should not have started with Paulo Ferreira playing wide on the left in midfield in preference to Arjen Robben or Damien Duff, whose joint introductions as second-half substitutes helped Chelsea halve Liverpool's two-goal lead and mount a late threat.

'I don't think I made a mistake,' said Mourinho of his selection decision. 'I think the biggest mistake of the first half was the decision of the free-kick for the goal. It looked 100 per cent an honest challenge so when the referee gives such an important decision when 70 metres from goal, that is wrong.'

Graham Poll, who harshly penalised John Terry for a high foot that led to John Arne Riise's opening goal, also disallowed a late effort by Terry, a decision that incited the Chelsea manager's ire. But so, too, did the form of his own players - the mistake for Luis Garcia's decisive second goal and a horrendous 94th minute miss by Joe Cole.

'You can't miss big chances in big matches,' said Mourinho. 'And we missed two big chances. One [by Didier Drogba] in the first half at 0-0 and one in the last minute. It hurts, like always, to miss out on big matches but the good thing is we have three games in two weeks in the Premiership, three games to be champions.'

The championship, of course, is Chelsea's consolation for missing out on a cup final and the prospect of Liverpool challenging for that title next season drew an immediate response from Mourinho: 'I think in the Premiership they have no chance,' said Mourinho. 'Over 40 matches, they have no chance, but maybe they will surprise me.

'I don't think the best team won today but the easy thing to say today is that they are in the final. Point. Finish. I can't wish them luck for the final because Middlesbrough or West Ham will be there and I have to respect them. I just wish for a good final and I wish them luck for the qualifying game for the Champions League!'

Opposite number Rafa Benitez declined to be drawn into an escalation of the managers' war of words, although he did reveal that Mourinho snubbed the opportunity to shake hands with him after the game.

'I was with our supporters,' said Benitez. 'After, I could see him but he didn't want [to shake hands]. OK.'

That snub aside, Benitez could delight in an effective game plan superbly executed by his players, adding: 'We are in the final of the FA Cup. I must give credit to my players, I don't need to talk about the other thing [Mourinho]. We deserved to win, we did the right things to win.'

The fact that the decisive goal came from Luis Garcia was particularly bitter for Chelsea given that it was his controversial effort that decided the Champions League meeting between the teams last season.

'It was a good finish and this time it definitely crossed the line,' Luis Garcia said. 'Chelsea put us under pressure in the second half but in the end the difference was we took our chances and they didn't take theirs.'
The Independent

Rafa revels in fit of the giggles at formation folly

By Guy Hodgson at Old Trafford
Published: 23 April 2006

Football fans try to go for the underbelly and Liverpool's walking along Sir Matt Busby Way were no different. "Chelsea FC," they chanted, "you ain't got no history." You can imagine ambassadors singing much the same to the newly-created Germany in 1871, but, boy, have they gone silent over there now.

Not for the first time, football's bar-room philosophers were way off mark. Chelsea had problems yesterday but none were associated with history. A lack of a decent tactical plan was one, a manager so sure of his powers he imagines he can do almost anything, another. Which just shows how wrong you can be, Jose Mourinho; distorting your line-up to the point of paralysis is not clever, although it verges on being funny.

Quite what the reaction in the Liverpool dressing room was to seeing Paulo Ferreira playing as a right winger is unknown but Rafael Benitez must have been close to breaking into a fit of giggles when he saw Gérémi explaining the position to his Portuguese colleague in the warm-up. "Kick it like this," may not have been the exact words, but they did not appear to be much more complex.

One up to Benitez then, because the only explanation for such a bizarre formation was that Chelsea feared the man on Liverpool's left flank. Harry Kewell was once, infamously, held up to George Best in a Leeds United match programme, but surely two full-backs patrolling the Australian was taking the comparison too far. But then most comparisons were untrustworthy yesterday and especially the one that has Chelsea among the powerhouses in Europe.

Yesterday, until Didier Drogba gave them belated hope, Mourinho's team, cowered into caution by the manager's tactics, looked like the plug had been stretched so far it had come out of the wall. It was Liverpool who crackled with energy and desire.
After 15 minutes of cat and mouse it became clear Liverpool could not be threatened on either flank and Kewell and Steven Gerrard could go forward with relative impunity. The former twisted poor Asier Del Horno into nerve-wracked obsolescence with one run while Gerrard sped past the left-back with such ease just before half-time that Liverpool should have gone in 2-0 ahead at half-time. Only a hopelessly skied shot from Luis Garcia stopped them.

By then John Arne Riise had given Liverpool the lead with a clever free-kick that confounded the defensive angles on the Chelsea wall, so Mourinho had to do something to alter the shade of the game that had become increasingly red. Del Horno was sacrificed to give the Londoners width. Benitez countered by withdrawing Gerrard slightly and, more importantly, by getting another goal.

The last time Luis Garcia scored against Chelsea, in last year's Champions' League semi-final, Mourinho called it a "ghost goal" because he believed the ball had not crossed the line. This time, as the Spaniard thumped a volley past Carlo Cudicini, there was no doubt about the validity, but the spectre of Ferreira and Gallas's headers that gave Garcia a chance will still have the power to haunt.

Benitez won the tactical battle, just as he outwitted Mourinho last year in the Champions' League. Liverpool had history on their side, and for 90 minutes at least they also had the better manager.

The Independent report 2

Chelsea 1 Liverpool 2: Riise and shine for Team Benitez

Cole blows last-gasp chance as Robben arrives too late to rescue Chelsea's Double dream
By Steve Tongue at Old Trafford
Published: 23 April 2006

Jose Mourinho's apparent belief in his tactical infallibility was crucially undermined last night and the latest battle in the Iberian managers' war went the way of Spain's Rafael Benitez. Having picked the wrong team, with Paulo Ferriera inexplicably used in midfield, Mourinho watched them go two goals down to John Arne Riise and Luis Garcia and retrieve only one as he belatedly rejigged. Even then Joe Cole, left stewing in the dug-out until the last half-hour, ought to have taken the game into extra-time, hooking a glorious chance into the Stretford End.

But the champions-elect were below their recent best, Frank Lampard failing either to make an impression from his position on the left or subdue his direct opponent, Steven Gerrard. Michael Essien, although declared fit, was again not the force he looked in his first few games for the club, and the formation allowed for no width until Arjen Robben was summoned for the second half, to be followed - as Chelsea went from one extreme to the other - by Cole and Damien Duff.

So Liverpool, for whom the revitalised Harry Kewell demonstrated all the benefits of wing-play, deservedly achieved only a second victory in 10 meetings between the two teams and their antipathetic managers over the past two seasons. At the Millennium Stadium on 13 May, they will meet either Middlesbrough or West Ham, whom they must visit in a rehearsal of sorts on Wednesday.

By the time of the final Chelsea will surely have sewn up a second successive League title, though after losing out again in Europe, Mourinho needed to complete his club's first Double to improve on last season.

Predictably, he refused to admit any misjudgement, concentrating instead on a disallowed goal by John Terry and the gap between the two teams in the Premiership. A final little barb was to wish Liverpool well "in the Champions' League qualifier" - with the emphasis on the word "qualifier".

The use of Ferreira in front of Gérémi looked a dubiously negative tactic from the start, even more so once Chelsea fell behind midway through the first half. Gérémi gave Kewell too much room and Ferreira was not so much a Portuguese man of war as a sardine out of water.
Keeping Didier Drogba and Hernan Crespo together as the attacking pair worked better in the first half, and the Ivorian had two scoring opportunities before Liverpool took the lead. Both were placed wide, the second from seven yards when played clean through. It was a bad miss, punished within two minutes. Terry was adjudged, harshly, to have fouled Garcia and Riise tapped the free-kick square for Gerrard, who merely stopped it, allowing Riise just enough of an angle for his low drive through the end of the wall.

For the rest of the half Liverpool, in their 22nd semi-final, were the more accomplished team. Kewell, switching to the right, found more joy against Asier del Horno, and came inside on to his left foot to drive wide. Terry was lucky to escape with a wayward back-header and in added time, Gerrard set up Garcia, who shot wildly.

Robben, brought on at half-time as the right-footed Ferreira switched to left-back, was quickly involved and thought he had set up an equaliser four minutes into the half with an inswinging free-kick from the right. But Graham Poll infuriated Terry by ruling that Chelsea's captain had leant on Riise at the far post before heading in. Liverpool's second had the most innocuous of beginnings, a throw-in on the right-hand side. Chelsea failed wretchedly to deal with it, Ferreira and then William Gallas heading towards their own goal to allow Garcia a clear run, which he finished with a beautifully placed left-footed drive.

Chelsea sent on Cole and Duff to occupy the flanks, pulling Robben into the centre behind Drogba, which brought about a much-needed improvement. Jose Reina had to save well from Robben, but in the 70th minute Riise headed a cross weakly into the air and Drogba reacted fastest to nod the ball just under the bar. The London support behind that goal came to life at last and the final quarter of an hour was the noisiest of a deafening evening. But after Robben's cross had sat up just as Cole was shooting, Liverpool's thousands sang the loudest, longest and last
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The Times

Chelsea 1 Liverpool 2: Garcia wonder strike gives Reds final say
Rob Hughes

Joe Cole, nominated by some as Footballer of the Year, will have lost a few votes at Old Trafford yesterday when he was guilty of a miss that will haunt him as long as he lives.

With an edge-of-the-seat semi-final in the fifth minute of added time, Cole fastened on to Arjen Robben’s centre six yards out and stunned his teammates by shooting over the bar when it seemed easier to score. It was a ghastly lapse in technique and cost Chelsea, who had trailed 2-0, the chance to complete the transformation from deficit into profit in extra time.

At that stage, the force was with the Premiership champions-elect to such an extent that another 30 minutes would almost certainly have seen them emerge victorious. Instead, it is Liverpool who go forward, as favourites, to play the winners of today’s other semi-final, between West Ham and Middlesbrough. For Rafa Benitez, the Liverpool manager, this was only the second time he had got the better of Jose Mourinho in 10 meetings. The two in question are not bad, mind: semi-finals in the European and FA Cups.

Despite Chelsea’s strong finish, Liverpool deserved their success, having had much the better of a first half in which Mourinho, strangely, opted to play without wingers. Paulo Ferreira has his merits, but he is not an outside-right, which is where he played for 45 minutes. The error of the Special One’s ways were evident in the second half when, in adversity, he threw on Cole, Arjen Robben and Damien Duff and Liverpool, terrorised on the flanks, were pinned on the back foot throughout.

Didier Drogba’s 16th goal of the season, after 70 minutes, sparked the fightback and brought a dramatic finale to what was previously a surprisingly mundane match.

Earlier, John Arne Riise and Luis Garcia had put Liverpool in command with well-executed strikes from 20 yards. The first surprise came early, Mourinho deploying Ferreira just in front of Geremi. This meant he had an international full-back in midfield and an international midfielder at full-back. Genius is simplicity, or so they tell us. This was something else.

The first save was made by Carlo Cudicini — unconvincingly. Xabi Alonso’s shot from distance was well struck, but should have posed no real threat. To Chelsea’s alarm, however, their reserve goalkeeper seemed to see it late, and pushed it out in front of him when a safe catch appeared to be routine.

Steven Gerrard, playing against the team he twice came close to joining, wandered all across the midfield, and just about everywhere else, turning in yet another selfless, inspiring performance. Mohamed Sissoko, who outshone Claude Makelele, was the Liverpool captain’s main rival as man of the match.

Chelsea ought to have taken the lead after 20 minutes, when Frank Lampard played the ball though to Drogba, who appeared to be at least a yard offside. The referee’s assistant begged to differ, and there was no flag to spare the blushes of the man from the Ivory Coast when he shot horribly wide.

Punishment was quickly forthcoming. Midway through the first half Liverpool were awarded a dubious free kick, against John Terry, on the edge of the D and Riise knocked it short to Gerrard, who stopped the ball for the Norwegian to beat Cudicini low to his right with a left-footed strike that bisected Lampard and Ferreira in Chelsea’s defensive wall.

A mistake by Terry would have presented Liverpool with a 2-0 lead but for the alertness of his goalkeeper. The England centre-half was short with his headed backpass and grateful for Cudicini’s timely advance to deny Peter Crouch in front of goal. Chelsea were out of sorts and all the noise was coming from the red legions. The Mersey choir was silenced, briefly, just before half-time, when Gerrard’s penetrative cross from the right was wasted by Garcia’s horribly mis-hit finish.

Mourinho had to change things at the interval, and for the second half Robben was sent on in place of Asier Del Horno. A reshuffle took Ferreira to left-back and Chelsea to 4-3-3, and within five minutes of the resumption they thought they had equality when Robben sent a long free kick from the right to the far post, where Terry headed the ball in.

It looked like a typical goal from the powerful defender, but the referee spotted that he had jumped early, taking a ride on Riise’s back. Foul awarded, correct decision.

Liverpool scored the decisive second goal, in the 53rd minute, when a throw-in from the right from Steve Finnan produced a comedy of errors in Chelsea’s renowned defence. First Ferreira nodded the ball into dangerous territory in the middle, then William Gallas and Makelele got in each other’s way, allowing Garcia, who had spurned two easier chances, to beat Cudicini with a left-footed shot from the edge of the area.

Chelsea sent on Cole and Duff and went for broke, getting back in it courtesy of an error by Riise, who essayed an unnecessary diving header at Makelele’s cross when a volleyed clearance was the requirement and succeeded only in sending the ball into the air, and at the same time taking keeper Pepe Reina and Jamie Carragher out of the game.

Drogba, left with a routine header, could hardly believe his good fortune. Cue a frantic finale and Cole’s desperate miss.

One more

Luis Garcia leaves Mourinho Double ambition in ashes

Paul Wilson
Sunday April 23, 2006
The Observer

If Rafa Benitez becomes any more popular with Liverpool fans Anfield will soon be getting an extra statue and pair of gates. The Merseyside contingent thoroughly enjoyed rocking Old Trafford with their 'La Bamba'-Benitez chant as goals from John Arne Riise and Luis Garcia denied Chelsea their chance of a Double and earned Liverpool a thirteenth FA Cup final appearance.
Benitez must have had just as much fun watching Mohamed Sissoko and Steven Gerrard neutralise Claude Makelele and Frank Lampard. Chelsea will have to take consolation from the league and from taking part in one of the most exciting and fiercely contested semi-finals for years.

At one point running away with the game, Liverpool spent the last quarter defending desperately and were almost undone at the death when Joe Cole missed a wonderful chance to send the game into extra time.

No one could have grumbled about that, though Liverpool were just about worth their win, both for their doughty defending at the end and the way they made light of Chelsea's so-called invincibility for a good hour of the game.

The gulf in resources might be unbridgeable in the league, but Liverpool have found the various cups a great leveller. This was the tenth meeting between these clubs in two seasons, so it is fair to say they know each other pretty well. Liverpool went into the game with only one win from the series and that by a single, disputed goal, yet still they could only find room for Djibril Cisse and Fernando Morientes on the bench, with Peter Crouch and Luis Garcia in attack.

Chelsea had the ostensibly more dangerous Hernan Crespo and Didier Drogba in partnership up front, but had evidently decided width was unimportant. The wing positions were notionally occupied by Paulo Ferreira and Frank Lampard, with Arjen Robben, Joe Cole and Damien Duff kept in reserve until Liverpool stunned them by taking a two-goal lead.

Chelsea's early chances fell to Drogba and were missed. He put a stooping header wide when a Lampard corner was flicked on at the near post and was guilty of an even more wayward finish when the flag stayed down and Lampard's through ball left him one-on-one with Jose Reina.

Liverpool responded by taking the lead with almost casual ease. Xabi Alonso had just given Liverpool encouragement with a speculative shot that Carlo Cudicini saw late and only just punched away, when John Terry was harshly adjudged to have fouled Luis Garcia just outside the penalty area. Gerrard and Riise stood over the free-kick and fooled Chelsea into expecting a blast, whereas the pair calmly played the ball to each other before Riise passed it through the wall and beyond Cudicini.

With 24 minutes of the first half remaining the ground waited for the Chelsea response and was still waiting when the interval arrived. Only a long shot from Lampard vaguely troubled Reina, whereas Gerrard produced a top class cut-back for Luis Garcia, only to see his team-mate snap at the chance. Chelsea brought Robben on for the second half, moving Ferreira back to left-back, and there soon arrived the first sign that it might not be their day when Terry rose at the other end to head in from Robben's free-kick, only to turn and see Graham Poll shaking his head. Replays suggested the referee had been right in ruling Terry had climbed on Riise.

Luis Garcia then missed another open goal off Gerrard, this one even more open than the first, before redeeming himself gloriously in the 53rd minute. William Gallas made a hash of dealing with a throw on halfway, the ball glancing off his head and bouncing behind him, where Luis Garcia was on to it in a flash. The striker still had 40 yards to goal, but anyone who saw Liverpool beating Juventus last season knew what would happen next. Luis Garcia knocked the ball forward, chased it and just as the cover was closing in he shot early and accurately, looping the ball unstoppably over the stranded Cudicini.

Jose Mourinho sent on two more substitutes with almost half an hour left, though Robben proved the most impressive. A slaloming run into the area brought a shot that Reina was grateful to hold.

Unfortunately for Liverpool, Riise misjudged a clearing header, sending the ball high across his own goal, and, with the advantage of a start, Drogba reached it before Reina to head into an empty net.

The last 15 minutes were as frantic as any FA Cup romantic could wish. Liverpool found themselves penned back, Chelsea tried everything they knew but could not break them down, with Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher distinguishing themselves in the now familiar blockade.

Liverpool hearts stopped beating in the final seconds when Joe Cole took Robben's pass and spun to give himself a clear sight of goal, only to shoot wildly over.

Mourinho was not impressed. 'You have to take those sort of chances in a game like this and we missed one in each half,' he said. 'It means we miss out on a big match and that hurts.'