Steven Gerrard's 85th minute penalty and an injury time strike by Ryan Babel sent Liverpool into their third Champions League semi-final in four seasons after an exhilarating 4-2 win over Arsenal at Anfield this morning. The Reds will meet Chelsea also for the third time in four seasons after the London giants prevailed 2-0 over Turkish outfit Fenerbahce in this morning's other quarter-final.Michael Ballack's first half header was followed by a late Frank Lampard strike at Stamford Bridge to send Avram Grant's side through 3-2 on aggregate. Chelsea had to survive a nervous finale which saw substitute goalkeeper Hilario make two superb saves to confirm a date with their Premier League counterparts who have got the better of the Blues on both previous encounters in Europe.
At Anfield, Arsene Wenger's men were six minutes away from booking their place in the last four after Theo Walcott ran the entire length of the pitch to set up Emmanuel Adebayor to level the scores at 2-2 on the night and 3-3 on aggregate. That would have been enough to put London club through on the away goals rule.
But within a minute, Kolo Toure was adjudged to have fouled Liverpool substitute Babel in the box and Gerrard confidently converted the penalty to ensure a happy conclusion to another memorable night at Anfield. Babel said that the penalty was a genuine one, though, Arsenal could justifiably claim that they should have had one the week before when Alexander Hleb was brought down by Dirk Kuyt.
"I was trying to make something of the move and they (Arsenal) took it away from me, so I deserved the penalty," said Babel. Benitez had no doubts about the merits of the win. "The important thing was that the team believed and it was a fantastic team performance," said the Spaniard. "Regarding the penalty, it doesn't really matter as we scored four goals this time which was more than enough to win the match."
Arsenal, who must now contemplate a third consecutive season without silverware, were left to rue what might have been after comfortably dominating their opponents for the first 30 minutes before finding a second wind that took them agonisingly close to going through.
Exhilarating contestIn the build-up to the match, Benitez had been at pains to emphasise the advantage Anfield's unique atmosphere accords his side on nights such as these. But it was his players rather than the visitors who, initially, appeared overawed by the occasion, and Arsenal might easily have taken an even earlier lead had Emmanuel Adebayor not carelessly strayed offside but took the lead not long later.
After a poor clearance by Xabi Alonso and a string of passes between Alexandre Hleb and Cesc Fabregas picked out Abou Diaby's run into the box, the midfielder unleashing a low shot that struck Reina's knee before finding the net at the near post. Nearly half an hour had elapsed before Hyypia, allowed a yard of space by Philippe Senderos, powered an unstoppable header in off the goalkeeper's left-hand post.
Suddenly it was Liverpool's pressing and passing that looked sharper while Arsenal's rhythm was further disrupted by the loss of Flamini's combative edge to an ankle injury. After being 1-1 at the break, Fernando Torres, a largely anonymous presence up until then, produced a brilliant turn and strike in the 69th minute to give Liverpool a valuable lead.
A sublime first touch enabled him to bring the ball under control while simultaneously spinning into a position from where he was able to fire an unstoppable shot across Almunia and into the top corner of the net. The Gunners finally did get their equaliser thanks to Walcott's exhilarating run. But their satisfaction was extremely short-lived and Babel's breakaway strike in injury time sealed Liverpool's win.
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AFP
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