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After yesterday's UEFA Champions League semi-final match, which was won 2-0 by the clear favorites AC Milan against "PSV," today awaits a much more intriguing match - the second semi-final match where London's Chelsea and . Of course, Chelsea is the favorite in the match, but not as clear as AC Milan was yesterday.
Jose Mourinho's players are without a doubt confident in their abilities, not only because of their victories in previous Champions League stages against "Barcelona" and Bayern Munich's "Bayern," but also the fact that Chelsea defeated their today's opponents three times this season: both Premier League matches ended in London's club's wins of 1-0, and in the league cup final played in February, Chelsea triumphed 3-2.
Although "Liverpool" lost in the English Championship to "Crystal Palace" at the weekend, and Chelsea easily defeated city neighbors "Fulham" 3-1, the history speaks to the advantage of the Merseyside club so far: "Liverpool" has participated in five European cup finals and has triumphed four times.
Experts quickly noticed that "Liverpool," which occupies only fifth place in the English Championship, is two completely different teams in the national championship and the UEFA Champions League. Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez stated that the victory in the quarterfinals against Turin's "Juventus" gave his players the belief that they can beat anyone and added that the results of the English championship will be completely irrelevant in tonight's match.
The only dilemma plaguing Chelsea's coach Jose Mourinho is the game of Arjen Robben. The Dutchman has proven that he can play in the weekend match against Fulham, but it is clear that he will not be able to last 90 minutes on the field, so he will either start the match and be substituted, or appear on the field after the substitution. J. Mourinho has already decided, but did not reveal his plans.
In the recent Chelsea matches, the myth of unbreakable defense was shattered: the London club conceded nine goals in the last four UEFA Champions League matches. One of the main reasons for this was the injuries of defenders Paulo Ferreira and Wayne Bridge. By the way, we will not see both defenders in tonight's match.
"The most important thing is not to panic, not to think that we must win this match," said J. Mourinho. "We won't win if we don't win. We can win the second leg. I have never lost a semi-final in my career, but one day it will happen, I know. Last year I said that I have never lost a final, but then we lost in the Portuguese cup final."
"Liverpool" received a boost with striker Milan Baros participating in Tuesday's training session after a knee injury suffered in the weekend match against Crystal Palace. Considering that due to representation in the Real UEFA Champions League tournament, Liverpool will not be able to rely on Fernando Morientes, and Djibril Cisse only recently started training after a leg fracture, the loss of M. Baros would be a very painful blow to Liverpool's attacking line.
If a yellow card is received in tonight's match, the following players would have to miss the second leg: R. Carvalho, W. Gallas, and G. Johnson (Chelsea) and X. Alonso, J. Carragher, S. Finnan, D. Hamann, and S. Warnock (Liverpool).
Probable lineups:
"Chelsea": Cech; Johnson, Carvalho, Terry, Gallas; Lampard, Makelele, Cole, Duff (or Robben); Drogba, Gudjohnsen "Liverpool": Dudek; Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Traore; Xabi Alonso, Biscan, Gerrard, Riise; Garcia, Baros
