Fabio Capello is not one to give too much away, his demeanour surly enough for ITV’s Clive Tyldsley to describe the Italian as “old poker face” during last night’s dead-rubber win over Belarus at Wembley. But prior to the game, the England manager had given the story-writers plenty to work with by suggesting that his squad for next summer’s World Cup had “seven or eight” spots available.

It would appear that the players had heard this too. Several of the would-be support-cast were given chances to stake their claim last night. Several managed to. Peter Crouch’s brace took his international tally to an incredible 18 in 35 appearances – comparable with the likes of Michael Owen, Fernando Torres or Miroslav Klose. Shaun Wright-Phillips worked hard in an unfamiliar left-wing role and was rewarded with a goal, whilst James Milner, Gabriel Agbonlahor & Ben Foster all showed glimpses of their talents.

The Right Sided Conundrum

Meanwhile, David Beckham’s man-of-the-match award – given to him by former Manchester United colleague Steve Bruce – may have been contested by many, his impact and quality surely could not be. The LA Galaxy media circus/midfielder is certainly the odd one out when it comes to Capello’s right sided options, in that he lacks pace and direct running ability, but he is also unique in the sense that his final ball is reliable and consistent. A January move to Milan will all but guarantee his spot in the squad.

With Theo Walcott’s stock still high despite recent injuries, it means that one of either Wright-Phillips or Aaron Lennon is likely to miss out. Both are very much form players, capable of explosiveness one minute, anonymity the next. The one in form come the end of the season may well be the one Capello picks. James Milner is another option, and his versatility – he appeared last night as a left-back – may well work in his favour. A lack of genuine class and goal threat however, may count against him.

The rest – David Bentley, Ashley Young – have some serious work to do before they are even considered.

Goalkeeper

Capello’s Bete Noire, it has to be said. Gone are the days when David Seaman, Gordon Banks or Peter Shilton could simply be thrown the gloves and relied upon to do England proud. England’s current crop of keepers each have merits, but equally worrying weaknesses.

David James and Robert Green would appear to be the two certainties currently. Green’s dismissal in Dnipro last weekend count more against Rio Ferdinand than the West Ham stopper, whilst James – even at 39 – remains the country’s most reliable, experienced keeper.

The third spot is most definitely available. Foster has had a rough start to the season with Manchester United, but is well thought of in the England setup, and his performance last night will have given him confidence that he can avoid the fate of the likes of Scott Carson and Paul Robinson, both of whom saw their form plummet when in possession of the #1 jersey for their country.

Foster still faces competition: Robinson is back into a semblance of form with Blackburn, and is popular with many of the squad, whilst the likes of Joe Hart at Birmingham, and Wigan’s Chris Kirkland both have their supporters, and should be worked hard enough to play themselves into form come next summer.

Strikers

At the other end of the field, there are similar issues. Capello seems settled on a Wayne Rooney/Emile Heskey partnership as his first choice, but beyond those there is a raft of hopefuls looking for a place on the plane.

Crouch may well have barged his way to the front of the queue last night with his poacher’s double, but Capello may well reserve judgement on the Tottenham man’s reliability against elite opposition. His Spurs colleague, Jermain Defoe, is a much safer bet, especially if he retains the good form with which he has begun this season.

Agbonlahor appears very much a deputy for the deputies. His raw pace and energy was welcome last night, and he showed admirable awareness to lay on the opener for Crouch, but in international terms, the Villa man sits behind Defoe in terms of consistency, reliability and goalscoring.

His replacement last night was West Ham’s Carlton Cole, a player who has improved significantly over the past two years, but also one who has the potential to play his way out of form in the blink of an eye. For all his improvement at Upton Park, Cole has just 20 league goals in 82 appearances for the Hammers.

Michael Owen, on form, outshines them all. Injuries, however, and a lack of playing time at Manchester United, have forced England’s fourth-highest goalscorer way down the pecking order. He was at Wembley last night to watch the young pretenders have their chance, no doubt hoping for one of his own before the final squad is named.

The Squad

So here goes. Attempting to name the squad a full seven months before Capello has to may well be a dangerous game, but the Italian’s comments have inspired me. See if you agree.

Goalkeepers: David James, Robert Green, Ben Foster

Defenders: Glen Johnson, Wes Brown, Wayne Bridge, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Matthew Upson

Midfielders: Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry, Owen Hargreaves, Joe Cole, David Beckham, Aaron Lennon, Theo Walcott

Forwards: Wayne Rooney, Peter Crouch, Emile Heskey, Jermain Defoe

1966 was a great year, or so I’m told by those of an age able to remember it.

It has been a long time since England lifted the highest honour in International football, too long in fact, and many have been brave enough to predict South Africa will be the location for the Three Lions to finally end the years of hurt for the England faithful.

Trouble is I’ve heard all this before, and after so many England related predictions that have fallen short I am now perhaps not sceptical, more cautiously optimistic on how the team will actually faire in the pressure cooker environment of the tournament proper.

Even the most cynical of fans must admit however that circumstance is a little different this time around.

Firstly there can be no question marks over the pedigree of the man charged with leading the side into battle. Fabio Capello is as good and as astute as they come. His trophy hall at club level all over Europe is to vast to list exhaustively, but suffice it to say it would be quicker to go over what he hasn’t won than what he has. There have been no signs that he has had any trouble translating his talents at club level to the International stage, his England appearing a very different prospect from that which he inherited.

So no excuses that England have the wrong man at the helm… so what about the players?

If England are to threaten winning the trophy next year then Wayne Rooney will have to have the tournament of his career so far. He has been in great form for club and country this term, flourishing in the new found responsibility thrust upon him at United now that Ronaldo has moved on. This can only benefit England as Rooney is growing into the talismanic, or as the Americans would like to call it ‘franchise’ player that England will need him to be.

The other main protagonists aren’t too shabby either, Gerrard, Lampard, Terry, Ferdinand, A. Cole would get in most if not any side in the world. Not a bad spine to the team then either.

The supporting cast have blown hot cold at various points since Capello took charge. Lennon has seemingly shaken off his persistent injury problems and found the sort of form that first got him into the side. Glen Johnson seems to be the only real option at right back for England at present. Better going forwards than backwards he is certainly a pressure point opposing teams will look to exploit.

The Goalkeeping position is still a hotly contested debate, although Capello has stated he knows who his first choice for the tournament is already. He hasn’t told us yet though I notice. Ben Foster has looked much improved for United in recent games but is yet to convince. Again England have many options here and I feel the race is still open for one of them to claim the shirt as their own before the end of the season.

Coming back from injury are Downing, Joe Cole and Owen Hargreaves who could yet feature for England in South Africa. If fully fit and firing, all three players would be a great asset to the squad although only time will tell what sort of season each will have. England have a number of wide options to choose from when you consider Walcott, Lennon, SWP and Young are also all in contention. (Discounting Beckham and Gerrards new found role in the team playing wide left).

And so it would seem that England certainly have the tools for the job on paper. There is also a new found steel and grit that the team was sorely lacking under previous regimes. However I still feel there is a delicacy about the way England’s fortune is decided. Beaten by Spain and France (although in friendly games) under Capello shows that the side is far from unbeatable when faced with top class opposition. No disrespect to Croatia but I don’t hear anyone touting them as potential winners in South Africa.

As everyone knows this England side are in a now or never moment. The big players are peaking in terms of their age and relative performance levels, and it will be all downhill for them in the main after this tournament. Capello continues to build and improve the side with every passing fixture and I for one would not doubt his ability to pull it all together for the big show next summer.

Still I can’t seem to shake that though in the back of my mind that takes the form of a penalty shootout that prematurely ends what could be a year to remember for English football.

England qualifications are not used to happen this way. Where was the last-gasp heroic goal, the nervous, stuttering qualification that went down to the wire, the sharpening of knives for the manager? Where was the unconvincing qualification, overlooked as assorted players and journalists chest-thumped that, having qualified, England could go onto win it, fooling nobody in the process?

Slaven Bilic wasn’t wrong in some respects when he said England have lost their ‘Englishness’. On the field, the Three Lions came out the blocks flying and never let up. If this were a race, England would be Usain Bolt such was their dominance against Croatia.

Yet manager Fabio Capello hasn’t exactly been talking up his team’s chances just yet, and is probably right not to do so. England go into the World Cup in great form, but there’s still plenty of obstacles in their path to potential glory.

The hand of Fab

Not that you’d know it from qualification. Even if there have been a few unconvincing performances, such as Andorra and the first 45 minutes against Kazakhstan, England have done what was required of them with ease, with Wednesday night the peak, so far, of the transformation of a battered and bruised team who couldn’t each Euro 2008.

Croatia, for all their ineptitude against England, are still not a bad side, even if they’re not quite at the same level as the generation of Suker, Prosinecki et al. But England were unrecognisable from their last meeting at Wembley.

Every ball mattered, every attack seemed capable of producing a goal. There was an enviable mixture of steel and flair and, quite simply, many England players turned in some of their best ever performances in a national shirt.

At the heart of all this stands the influence of Capello, a man who still raged on the touchline when Croatia pulled back to 4-1. Don Fabio is not a man who tolerates lapses, no matter how far in front his team is.

A lesser manager may have bowed to public opinion by giving Jermaine Defoe a start, but Capello persists with the unfashionable Emile Heskey, who is a vital cog to the way England play. Few will bet against the Italian leading England to South Africa after a flawless qualification (there are still games against Ukraine and Belarus to come).

But even while the country celebrates, and tabloids find themselves in the unusual position of showering praise upon the current incumbent, Capello will know the job has only just begun. England can tentatively describe themselves as world class now, even if they are far from being the best in the world.

The contenders

The team that lined up for the 2-0 loss against Spain in February may be somewhat different from the one that took to the field at Wembley, but the European Champions still laid down a marker that night, reaffirming that they are the team to beat in Europe.

Like England, Spain have coasted through their qualification group, their heart composed of Barcelona’s finest who conquered all this season in Europe. Add the likes of Torres, David Silva, David Villa, and Xabi Alonso to Iniesta and Xavi and you have a mouthwatering selection of talents that work well as a team.

Currently Spain should be considered joint favourites, along with Brazil, who look ominously good. It is not inconceivable that England may have to defeat one, or even both teams, if they are to win the World Cup.

For a team that has built itself on the myth of samba football, Brazil are set up to win games, something they do very efficiently. Dunga may not be a popular coach with the Brazilian public, but he gets results.

While Spain are all about passing, movement and generally beguiling opponents, Brazil are built on a ruthlessly efficient counter attacking model. Quite simply, the South Americans can comfortably soak up pressure before breaking with speed and efficiency and giving lesser sides little chance. It is a team built in the model of the playing style of their coach.

Behind Brazil and Spain come familiar faces as the rest of the world jostles for the ‘best of the rest’ title. Holland have walked through their group, although will always be fighting themselves as much as the opposition.

The others

Then you have Italy and Germany, neither of whom are yet through to South Africa and neither of whom have impressed. But qualification form counts for little in the tournaments and somehow you always see these names towards the latter end of the tournament. It would seem strange to even mention Italy given their current state, but they can never be discounted.

From CONACAF, the USA have shown in the Confederations Cup that they will be no pushovers, while Mexico are resurgent following their discarding of Sven, while any of the teams in the South American group will fancy their chances of an upset.

And England would be right to be cautious of a selection of African teams, should they qualify. Cameroon have started to look like a very decent side under Paul Le Guen, while the Ivory Coast contains world class players like Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure. Both teams may quietly fancy their chances of a good run in the competition.

But South Africa is still a whole season away and much can happen in this time period. England wouldn’t be England without an injury scare and it would only take one of Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard or John Terry to drop out and the squad takes on a very different look.

There is also the danger of complacency, although this is something Capello is unlikely to stand for. Nonetheless, forthcoming fixtures against Ukraine and Belarus will come as something of an anti-climax and anything less than convincing wins could attract criticism.

But there’s something different about this England team – the players look like they believe they can win every game. Capello will need to draw every ounce of this mental strength if England are to succeed in a competition where there will be no easy games.

The Three Lions may not yet be the best in the world, and still have work to do if they want to be considered as such, but they are also in the best shape since 1966 to make a stint at taking the famous trophy back to these shores.

As it came, so it went. The opening week of action in the 09/10 Barclays Premier League is already down the road, the seemingly endless wait for a glimpse of England’s top stars made this season as eagerly anticipated as….well….last season’s, and 1.77m people so far have seen fit to take the life-changing plunge into the Premier League’s fantasy football game.

I say life-changing, because it is true. Honest. My own week has been spent cringing at Kevin Foley’s medial knee ligament injury, fretting over whether Frank Lampard or Wayne Rooney deserved the captain’s armband, and worshipping at the feet of Cesc Fàbregas. And my next week will be something similar I’m sure.

The men in form

It is arguably the hardest day of the season to predict a team for, the opening day. Most sides are loaded with new signings, new managers and new ideas, which makes second guessing a starting line-up difficult. As I found to my cost when Carlos Tévez was left out of Manchester City’s team to face Blackburn at Ewood Park- although a heel injury was more the reason in that case.

There are some who can be relied upon though, Fàbregas seemed to slip under the radar of the lads I know, but his propensity for performances such as the one he submitted at Everton last week made him a shoe-in for my team. Two goals, two assists, three bonus points and even a clean sheet (removed as he was in the 74th minute) earned the Spanish genius a whopping 22 points. Enough to ensure that, even without a midweek fixture, he remains top of the scoring charts.

Well, level with Glen Johnson that is. Liverpool’s £18m full back was one of the few players to emerge with any credit- or points- from the Reds’ insipid 2-1 defeat to Spurs on Sunday, and he picked up a superb 18 points last night as his side bounced back in style with a 4-0 win over Tony Pulis’ Stoke City. A goal, an assist, a clean sheet and man of the match. His Liverpool captain, Steven Gerrard, also chipped in, eleven points for Stevie G puts him second behind Cesc in the midfield charts, with 18.

Another England star on form is undoubtedly Jermain Defoe. Bursting into life after a quiet start in that Liverpool win, the Spurs striker rifled home a brilliant hat-trick to help put Hull City to the sword in a 5-1 win at the KC Stadium. 19 points from 2 games is good going, and his two goals for England make Defoe the in-form striker of the game.

As for the men at the back, well Burnley’s win over Manchester United grabbed enormous headlines today, and there was no doubt who the hero of that particular hour was- Clarets keeper Brian Jensen. A penalty save from Michael Carrick, an against-all-odds clean sheet and a man-of-the-match display gave the Big Dane 14 points, and makes him the league’s top scoring keeper/defender, level on points with Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross, whose opening day goal and clean sheet allows him to stay at the top despite last night’s mauling at Anfield.

The ones to avoid

Defensive midfielders. Stop it. Please. I’m not saying they are bad players, I’m really not. But for Fantasy purposes, just steer clear. Javier Mascherano, Nigel de Jong, Scott Parker & Jon Obi Mikel just aren’t cut out for points scoring. They usually retail around the £5m mark, for which price you can obtain a much more threatening player- think Stephen Hunt, Kieron Dyer, Luis Jimenez.

This may sound a bit strange, but Manchester United midfielders. You simply can’t rely on them to start, or to score points. Two games in, and their top scoring midfielder has four points. One could argue that Carrick, last night’s spot kick aberration aside, is a constant, but still the likes of Valencia, Park, Giggs, Anderson & Scholes are set for a rotational season, and therefore represent a risk at best.

Hull defenders. Right, I have Michael Turner and he is a good player, but seven goals shipped in two games make Hull stoppers the men to avoid here. Turner may well move on before the end of the transfer window, and if he does he may represent a sneaky bargain at £4.5m, but until he does he and his Tigers colleagues should be ignored.

The bargains

Hard to choose, hard to find, but the most rewarding of all I feel. Here are one or two bargains you might like to have a look at:

Stephen Hunt (Hull) £5m- Like him or not, Hunt is an all action wide midfielder with an eye for goal. He is also hugely dependable in terms of injuries and consistency. He will play, he will assist, he will score. Two in two already, at £5m the wild haired one represents a fine acquisition, both by Phil Brown and you.

Andrew Keogh (Wolves) £4.5m- Andrew Keogh is talented, make no mistake. When all eyes were on Billy Sharp’s goals at Scunthorpe a couple of years back, the connoisseurs were more impressed by Keogh’s all round class. The players’ respective career trajectories would tend to agree. With Sylvan Ebanks-Blake & Kevin Doyle short of fitness, Keogh has a chance to nail down a starting spot, and his winner at Wigan in midweek may well be the first step.

Anton Ferdinand (Sunderland) £4.5m- You ready for this? Steve Bruce. Is. A. Good. Manager. He organises teams well, he has faith in players, and his sides generally do pretty well. Sunderland should be no different. Ferdinand hasn’t had a great time on the North East, but with Bruce’s backing and Sunderland’s improving side, he should pick up plenty of points this term.

Alex Song (Arsenal) £5.5m- Bucking the trend of defensive midfielders, but that is because Alex Song is listed as a defender on the game. Therefore, he picks up clean sheets that his contemporary midfielders do not, and Arsenal’s fluid passing means he is likely to chip in the odd assist and even goal too. An improving player, and a good signing.

Nicklas Bendtner (Arsenal) £6.5m- Another Arsenal player granted, but Bendtner is enjoying an extended first team run in the absence of Nasri, Rosický, Walcott et al. Might not be the deadliest finisher, but creates chances, and can score goals. A new role on the right of Arsenal’s attack may be the making of him.

Upcoming Fixtures

• Arsenal v Portsmouth
• Birmingham v Stoke City
• Hull City v Bolton
• Man City v Wolves
• Sunderland v Blackburn
• Wigan v Man Utd
• West Ham v Tottenham
• Burnley v Everton
• Fulham v Chelsea
• Liverpool v Aston Villa

Home games for Arsenal, Manchester City & Liverpool may prove points havens, Manchester United face another tough Lancashire away-day, whilst Chelsea have a local derby of their own against impressive Fulham. Sunderland at home to Blackburn may well be a good home banker, especially with Darren Bent in such fine form, whilst Burnley will be on a high after their win over United, and a game against an Everton side in disarray may just be the perfect one for Owen Coyle and his men.

My team’s performance

Last week’s column saw me put my (admittedly risky) team on the line, as well as my reputation. After all, the guy giving out the tips and advice needs to know what he’s talking about, right? Well even if I say so myself, I think its been a pretty good week for me and my Baroque Social side. 122 points leaves me pretty well placed in all competitions.

Fàbregas helped of course, 22 points on his own (if only I’d had him as captain). Two goals for Drogba, one for Rooney, one for Shawcross, one for Lampard mean my team is in decent form in front of goal. Assists thrown in for N’Zogbia & Drogba, and some neat clean sheets for both my keepers, Richard Dunne, Insúa & Shawcross mean I have been in solid points scoring form.

A poorish second week where Rooney as captain let me down, and Lampard as non-captain did not; notwithstanding, I am pleased with my start. I sit eighth in the Football Media league, well placed indeed. Credit must go to the leader, Matt Cornford and his provocatively named side “Man City = Small Club”, who lead the way with 135 points, from Thomas Cook and his “Flatulence” and this week’s star performer Rob Blanchette and his “Queens Park Badgers”, who scored an incredible 92 points (Defoe, Johnson, Gerrard, Kuyt, Lampard basically) to rocket into third place. But Baroque Social are lurking, and you would be wise to be wary!

This week’s transfer by myself is a risky one, Wayne Rooney out, Robin Van Persie in. The thinking is simple, Arsenal are at home to Portsmouth, and playing some lovely stuff. Van Persie should help himself. In theory at least. It also leaves me with a million in the bank to play with, which could be dangerous.

Prizes

So far 488 players have joined the Football Media fantasy football league where we’re giving away prizes every month.

1st Prize

The winner will receive:

• An authentic signed football shirt of their choice from Icons.
• The latest football boot of their choice from SoccerPro.
• A Soccerlens Evolution T-Shirt.

Monthly Prize

At the start of every month Football Media (in association with Subside Sports) will give away a free shirt (up to £39.99 + delivery in value) to one lucky player in the FM fantasy football league. This player will be picked at random and there are 9 shirts to give away in total (Sep 09 to May 10).

I’ve been feeling this way for a while now, but haven’t had the courage to come out and say it. I know it’s only three little words, but what if it’s not reciprocated? What if I’m laughed at? The words, of course, are those that goes through my mind increasingly each time I see Chelsea play, so here they go. Lampard is quality.

Ok, so now it’s out it doesn’t seem that big a deal. Of course Frank Lampard is quality. He’s the first name on a team sheet of a squad of world class internationals and (albeit a less qualifying piece of evidence) an established England player. He combines hardwork with unquestionable class, and scores goals and provides assists more consistently than Monday follows Sunday, as anyone with him in a Fantasy Football team would concur.

Yet there’s something that has made me feel the need to blurt my feelings so publicly. Until this season, I myself was a Lampard hater. His deflected goals, his inability to play well for England, his insistence that he has the lowest body fat percentage at Chelsea – the very fact that he plays for Chelsea – all of them unforgivable.  But that was when I knew my  criticism of him didn’t matter. He probably is good, I thought, because other players say he is. And he does score a lot of a goals for a midfielder, even if they are always off ankles and arses, I would muse. But he’s Fat Frank, I don’t like him, and he’s overrated, I would conclude.

But this season my eyes have finally opened to Lampard as a truly brilliant player.  His ability to see the correct pass and execute it perfectly is second to none, and the importance of his control of the ball when receiving the two of a ‘one-two’ in and around the area cannot be overestimated.  He combines quality with the quality of being effective which evades so many others. And now that I’ve seen the light I assumed, as people do, that everyone else had been enlightened too. That was until the PFA Player of the Year awards were announced, sans Frank. Bemusing.  His own fellow professionals had finally given up on supporting their most consistent peer.

So now has come the time to admit we went too far. Saying that someone’s useless when it doesn’t make an ounce of difference to anything except winding up your Chelsea friends is fine. But when it culminates in unfairly depriving one of the country’s best players the recognition he deserves… well, it’s unfair.

This isn’t for the West Ham fans who genuinely believe they despise Lampard from the barrels of their heart, nor the one’s who pretend they do. They’re another story for another time. This is for the me’s of season’s gone, and my friend who last week said that Lampard would have to score a hat-trick in the World Cup final for him to forgive him. (“Forgive him for what?” “For being a c***”).

We’ll probably have to accept that Lampard isn’t going to use England to transform public opinion in Beckhamesque fashion. But then we don’t have to love Lampard like we love Beckham. All I ask is that we give him his dues, and admit that he’s quality.

Barcelona v Chelsea.

The sentence no Liverpool fan wanted to hear this morning, even though most expected to. So the European season for Liverpool has ended prior to the semi final stage for only the second time in five seasons after last night’s incredible 4-4 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, but the memories of this tie will surely live long in the memory.

Cynics, myself included, had debated the merits of Rafael Benitez sending a weakened side down to London for this second leg. The realists had surmised that the three away goals scored by Guus Hiddink’s side a week ago would be enough to see them safely into the last four.

But since when have cynics and realists ruled football? Liverpool were two up before half an hour had been played, and, despite sucker punches from Didier Drogba, Alex & Frank Lampard after half time, still found themselves needing only one more goal to snatch the tie with seven minutes remaining.

That they did owed as much to Chelsea’s fallibility as it did Liverpool’s spirit, but neither should be underestimated. Denied the services of Steven Gerrard, Liverpool’s trio of holding midfielders did a sterling job. One wonders what impact the presence of Javier Mascherano in the first leg might have had on proceedings. Liverpool were lively from the outset, their tempo ensured the game resembled an Anfield encounter, rather than a Stamford Bridge one.

In these sort of circumstances, an early goal is invariably required, and whilst Fabio Aurelio’s “Gary McAllister” free kick took nineteen minutes to arrive (for Paul Gerrard 2001, now read Petr Cech 2009), the seeds of doubt had already began to blossom in Chelsea’s minds.

Cech was at his worst, a flailing save from Dirk Kuyt was about the only thing he got right all evening. By the time he had been comprehensively beaten by Xabi Alonso’s penalty nine minutes later, following a foul by Branislav Ivanovic on the Spaniard, full on panic was on the verge of infesting those in blue. Kuyt’s header threatened a third, whilst Cech made a hash of a routine take and was bailed out by Michael Essien.

Level on aggregate at half time was just about as good as it could have been dreamt by Liverpool fans, in truth the half time whistle was greeted with a touch of dismay by the travelling support, who sensed that the interval may give Chelsea a chance to regroup and take some of the momentum away from the visitors. And so it proved.

Pepe Reina has been outstanding for Liverpool this season, but within six minutes of the restart he had given Chelsea a nerve-settling goal. His balance was off as he awaited Nicolas Anelka’s well-worked cross from the right, Drogba was determined and got a smart toe on the ball at the near post, and the Spaniard could not adjust in time to take the ball cleanly, fumbling it over the line. It woke the Stamford Bridge crowd up, and some of their players too.

Within minutes Alex had produced one of his trademark blasts from a free kick and the home side were in the comfort zone again. Even more so when Frank Lampard, professionalism personified and a player who it is genuinely impossible not to respect, steered in Drogba’s superb cut back for 3-2. Liverpool’s spirit seemed to have been dampened, three goals needed in fourteen minutes was do-able, but unlikely.

Not that unlikely however, when Lucas’ deflected drive and Kuyt’s close range header had both beaten Cech. Liverpool now were within one goal again, with seven crucial minutes on the clock. Cech was still shaking, racing from his line rashly and thanking his lucky stars that Aurelio was unable to pick out either net or team-mate from the left wing. Suddenly Chelsea were trembling again. Lampard maintained control though and it, fittingly, was he who whipped Chelsea’s fourth of the evening past Reina from Anelka’s pull back to make the aggregate score 7-5.

That’s right. 7-5. Or as the BBC’s antiquated “Vidi-Printer” might have put it “7-5 (seven-five)”. If there were gasps of derision from the purists when Red was drawn to play Blue in the quarter-final draw, they were proven unfounded here. Ok so Alan Hansen & Ron Harris may cringe in disbelief at the defending on show, Ray Clemence & Peter Bonetti may shudder at a couple of the goalkeeping errors, but for entertainment, UEFA could not have asked for a better tie to advertise their showpiece competition.

Liverpool deserve enormous credit, it isn’t often you hear fans commenting on being proud of their team after a European exit at the hands of a domestic rival, but Reds had pride in abundance last night. Not many sides will score four at Stamford Bridge on a European night, and maybe the Gerrard factor will be played down a little now by our good friends in the press.

Chelsea on the other hand are the victors, and deservedly so over the two legs, their display at Anfield alone ensured their right to face Pep Guardiola’s Harlem Globetrotters in the semi finals. They showed fighting spirit of their own to battle back from the brink of collapse to overcome Benitez’s machine in what will surely go down as one of the Champions League’s all time great ties.

The only shame here is that the winners did not secure a spot in the final.

Also See: The history of the Liverpool – Chelsea rivalry.