Game too far for Jose's men

Did Garcia's weak shot cross the line? Slovak referee Lubos Michel and his assistant Roman Slysko both thought so, but Mourinho remained unconvinced.

"You can say the linesman scored," said Mourinho bitterly. "I felt the power of Anfield. It didn't interfere with my team but it may have interfered with the result."

Whether the referee and linesman were influenced by the passions of the crowd is something we will never know, but Mourinho did all that he could reasonably do in his attempt to outwit Benitez.

The Spanish coach of Liverpool is no clown, having won the UEFA Cup last season. Although he narrowly lost two Premier League games and the Carling Cup Final to Chelsea, his game plan produced a goalless draw at Stamford Bridge last week.

Modifications were required last night to prevent Chelsea claiming the single away goal that, in the circumstances, would have been sufficient to win the tie. "We wanted to control the match and to do that we had to work hard," explained Benitez. "We played at a high tempo and we played high up the pitch."

The end result was that Liverpool restricted Chelsea to just one shot on target, a free kick from Frank Lampard, dealt with admirably by Jerzy Dudek in the 66th minute.

Liverpool defended in depth and, in the final analysis, Chelsea lacked the guile to break through. Why? Because the two players capable of unlocking the Liverpool defence were both injured.

Mourinho acknowledged the significance of the absence of Damien Duff and Arjen Robben when he said: "Without wingers and speed the job becomes more difficult."

Although Robben, still recovering from a foot injury, came off the bench for the final 20 minutes he clearly wasn't fully fit.

At this late stage, Mourinho sent on Mateja Kezman and centre half Robert Huth to join Robben and Didier Drogba in a four man attack but they rarely threatened Liverpool's centre back alliance of Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia.

The lack of width forced Lampard and the impressive Eidur Gudjohnsen to direct Chelsea's attacking momentum at the heart of Liverpool's central defence where they ran aground.

"Liverpool scored their early goal and then they just defended," insisted Mourinho. "They didn't deserve to win. The best team lost but sometimes you have to accept the reality of football. Liverpool defended with courage."

Much as Benitez had hoped, the Anfield crowd re-produced the kind of atmosphere that became a Liverpool trademark during the days when they won Europe's premier prize four times in seven years. No ground in the country can emulate Anfield on a big European night.

But even those who could remember the days of Rush and Dalglish must have been stunned when Garcia scored his goal so early. Steve Gerrard's clever pass, curled into the penalty area, enticed Petr Cech from his goalmouth.

He collided with the advancing Milan Baros and as the ball squirmed away, Garcia rushed in to supply the finishing touch from close range. William Gallas lashed the ball clear from under the bar but the referee looked over to his linesman and awarded a goal.

If it wasn't a goal the referee might have interpreted Cech's challenge on Baros as a red card offence. Benitez had no doubt. "I have not seen the goal on TV but I did see a red card and a penalty," he said mischievously.

On another day Chelsea would have equalised. Gudjohnsen missed a gift in injury time - - - but this just wasn't their day.

"I can't win everything," said Mourinho. "I can't complain. Tomorrow morning I'll be at Stamford Bridge making preparations."Are you still special someone asked him. "For sure I'm still special," he smiled.