LIVERPOOL had asked for an unlikely comeback at Stamford Bridge and they got several. Unfortunately the final recovery was from Chelsea on the night rather than from Rafael Benitez’s side over the two legs.

When the draw that paired these great domestic rivals who have met on 10 occasions in Europe under the Spaniard was made in Nyon last month there were collective groans.

Another cagey game of cat and mouse between sides who know each other inside out was envisaged but we ended up with more big twists than a Chubby Checker lookalike contest.

The impossible task of knocking out the Londoners in their own manor became seemingly even more improbable with an injured Steven Gerrard forced to watch the contest in the stands.

Although the 90 minutes of topsy-turvy action that followed provided entertaining but uncomfortable viewing for most of those involved, one protagonist who endured a more twitchy night than most was Chelsea’s hapless keeper Petr Cech who livened things up early on by leaving a massive slice of his goal wide open for Fabio Aurelio to simply dispatch a free-kick into.

Although not everyone possesses the technique of the Brazilian to strike a ball so accurately, everyone was left wondering how the helmet-clad custodian had managed to get his angles just so wrong.

The Czech’s decision-making continued to go from bad to worse and his team-mate Branislav Ivanovic – Chelsea’s hero of the first leg – was guilty of recklessness too as soon after he wrestled Xabi Alonso to the floor giving the Spaniard a spot-kick that he duly converted. With Liverpool 2-0 up at the break, hopes of another ‘Istanbul-style’ fightback were growing but another goalkeeping gaffe – this time by Pepe Reina – gave Chelsea a foothold back into the match. As arguably the best keeper in the world not to be number one with his national side, Spaniard Reina is usually the model of consistency and you can count the number of errors he’s made this season on the hand of one of his gloves.