Reds 1-1 Chelsea: A moment of madness and a mountain to climb

That's not something we are used to. A late equaliser such as that is hard to take in any situation but in a Champions League semi final that changes the entire complexion of the tie completely and an own goal to boot...that's pretty horrendous and very hard to take.

I feel sorry for poor John Arne. Sure he's been horribly off form for quite some time but no one deserves that even if his judgement in dealing with the goal was very poor. Why crouch down to head away a ball that could easily be booted into touch?

But there's no pointing in going over the what ifs and the maybes. We had some good chances to finish the tie off in the second half and played well at times.

Chelsea weren't any great shakes and that's would should be the starting point in preparing for the second half. They are clearly not the side they were under Jose Mourinho and the newspaper headlines would be a lot different tomorrow were it not for Riise's wayward header.

We've not scored at Stamford Bridge in a long time and not in the two visits this season but as Steven Gerrard wisely pointed out post match, Fernando Torres didn't play in either of those games.

Rafa Benitez was rightly peeved at the performance of referee Konrad Plautz. Chelsea seemed to get every little decision their way and I struggle to think where the four minutes of added on time came from when there were only four substitutions in the whole game.

My friend, ever the conspiracy theorist, reckoned on a grand scheme to avoid the logistical and safety nightmare of a Liverpool v Man U final in Moscow. I wouldn't go that far but undoubtedly a poor refereeing performance contributed somewhat to tonight's result.

In any case, no point dwelling. We played a good game right up until that one fatal moment at the end. There's enough quality and belief in this team to believe we can do the job at Stamford Bridge.

There's been plenty of miracles under Rafa in Europe these past three years and we'd be foolish to write off the chances of another next Wednesday in West London however harder the task has now become.