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A night of intense drama, mistakes and one incredible goal. Alex’s free kick could be described as a ‘thunderbolt’, but that was reserved for Salah in this article, so we’ll go with ‘howitzer’ instead. A foot like a traction engine.
These two clubs have quite the storied history when it comes to Champions League matches. April 2009 was a key chapter, with Chelsea’s 7-5 aggregate win sending them through to a semi-final clash with Barcelona that ended with Andres Iniesta’s wonderful clincher in London.
But before that, Guus Hiddink’s Chelsea had beaten Liverpool 3-1 on Merseyside. The return leg not only saw Alex wallop his free kick in from miles out, it saw chaos brought on by nerves, passion and fight.
First, Fรกbio Aurรฉlio spotted ฤech in no man’s land from a free kick that looked like it could only be crossed. Then Alonso made it 3-3 on aggregate from the penalty spot. Pepe Reina then made a mistake of his own, failing to stop Didier Drogba’s minimal touch from Nicolas Anelka’s cross when he just needed to collect.
Lampard, Ballack and Alex then stood over the legendary free kick that really could only have been scored with the power the Brazilian put behind it.
It seemed like Lampard then took the match away from Liverpool with Chelsea’s third of the night, but Lucas Leiva’s nasty deflected shot quickly wrong-footed ฤech and Dirk Kuyt’s header brought the visitors back to within one. Lampard had the last say, though, hitting both posts before the ball trickled in to make it 4-4 on the night and push the Blues into the next round.
A breathless classic with a stunner of a goal and plenty of head-in-your-hands moments? That’s what we want.