GERRARD WARNS CHELSEA

Apr 26 2007
by Chris Bascombe, Liverpool Echo

Steven Gerrard today warned Chelsea to underestimate Liverpool’s capacity for epic fightbacks at their peril as he insisted the Champions League semi-final remains on a knife edge.

Jose Mourinho’s side pushed themselves into pole position with last night’s 1-0 win in the first leg at Stamford Bridge.

Liverpool know they must score twice to win and prevent a potentially decisive away goal to preserve their dream of a second European final in three years.

Gerrard couldn’t hide his disappointment at an erratic performance in London, but insists all is not yet lost ahead of next Tuesday’s return leg at Anfield.

"Chelsea have got the advantage and obviously we’d have liked a better result to take back to Anfield, but we’re not down yet. It’s still game on," said Gerrard.

"If we score first at Anfield we could be in for a very good second leg.

"They’re happy with the result, but they’ll have to show us a lot of respect in the second leg because they know it’s not over. They’ve witnessed the atmosphere at Anfield before and they know we’re capable of beating them at Anfield, as we’ve done before and shown in the Premiership this season.

"It’s half-time. We would have preferred a better scoreline, but it’s not over.

"We dominated possession in the second half without creating chances, although their keeper has pulled off a top save from my volley.

""I don’t think any other keeper in Europe would have saved that because I was already thinking I was away to celebrate.

"The manager told us to be more positive in the second half and said we hadn’t kept the ball positively enough. He wanted us to hurt them more, but we’re confident we can do that at Anfield with the crowd behind us.

"We’ll raise the tempo and the first 20 minutes will be important. If we score first, let’s see what happens then."

Manager Rafa Benitez will be hoping Steve Finnan recovers from his neck injury having been included in the squad last night as a red herring.

Finnan was never fit enough to be in contention, but hopes to be available next week.

Benitez is likely to rest players rather than take a strong squad to Portsmouth this weekend for a game which has no bearing on Liverpool’s Premier League season.