Out but not down in belief of dream end

WE’RE gonna win the league,” sang the away supporters. The belief that dream can be realised will remain among Rafael Benitez’s side this morning, even if hopes of European glory were dashed in dramatic fashion.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson had previously intimated the loser of last night’s all-English Champions League tie would suffer a damaging blow to their title chances.

But it would be impossible for Liverpool not to gain heart and confidence from the manner in which they came so close to the most unlikely of victories.

After their 3-1 defeat in last week’s first leg at Anfield, Liverpool needed to rewrite the history books once again by becoming the first team to score three times at Chelsea in European competition.

They scored four. However, so did Chelsea, meaning the Londoners go through to the semi-finals to meet competition favourites Barcelona.

But on this evidence, its Liverpool who will see themselves as the more likely to challenge United’s domestic supremacy.

The game was in the balance until Frank Lampard netted his second in the 89th minute to finally quell a magnificent effort from the visitors who, having let slip a 2-0 lead to fall behind 3-2, went back ahead 4-3 to move within a goal of progress.

What a feast. Liverpool’s 300th game in European competition, it had everything; pulsating end-to-end action, fantastic goals, daft mistakes and dodgy goalkeeping.

Perhaps Chelsea and Liverpool should play each other more often. Even Jorge Valdano, who once famously described this fixture as enticing as watching ‘s--t on a stick’, will have been impressed.

When the dust settles on an extraordinary evening, Chelsea’s first goal will be pinpointed as the decisive moment of this topsy-turvy encounter.

Benitez’s side were in the ascendancy when Drogba’s near-post flick from substitute Nicolas Anelka’s right wing cross was enough to deceive Pepe Reina, who fumbled the ball into his own goal.

Suddenly, the force was with the home side and Liverpool, from a position of relative control, were always straining to stay in the competition.

But it wasn’t for the lack of effort they ultimately fell short. This, after all, is a team that has shown time and time again they simply cannot accept when it is beaten.

To think the visitors were effectively written off from the moment the team-sheet arrived with Steven Gerrard’s namely conspicuously absent.