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Champions League Semi Final 1st leg
Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea

When the final whistle went off, in what seemed like the 108th minute, it was frustration and angst that the red skipper's faced betrayed, as Liverpool passed up an opportunity to take a comfortable lead to Stamford Bridge, for the second round of the European Cup semi-final.

In the post-match interviews, Steven Gerrard was diplomatic regarding the Risse own goal incident, but remained bullish on Liverpools chances of winning the tie outright.

"We win, lose and draw together and it's my job as captain to pick the boys up and make sure that we're ready to go next week," he said.

"We'll give it everything we've got at Stamford Bridge but we believe this tie's not over. These ties are often decided on small details; twists of fate and unfortunately for us tonight that bit of luck has gone with Chelsea at the end, but maybe we'll get a bit of luck at Stamford Bridge?"

The question was put to the Liverpool skipper, that many now think Chelsea are favourites, but Gerrard wasn't having any of it.

"Let them think what they want" he said. "Let people say Chelsea are favourites, that's not important. We've just got to block that out. We know the job we've got to do and we believe we can beat Chelsea on their own patch."

Gerrard was also quick to take confidence from some interesting statistics from the game and his confidence it appears, isn't unfounded. "We've created the better chances," he said. "I don't think Pepe [Reina] had anything to do besides pick the ball out of the back of the net late on. Petr Čech pulled off two or three fantastic saves and if we'd have come off that pitch with a 1-0 victory, we'd have been disappointed it wasn't 2-0."

Across the web and Liverpool supporters have been 100% behind John Arne Riise, removing any hint of blame for his own goal.

A spokesman for Liverpool FC community website http://myliverpoolfc.co.uk had this to say on the own-goal incident; "Tony Gale and Mark Hughes sat in the press box after the game, and slammed Riise for being "horribly left-footed. What they mean, is they thought Riise was afraid to swing his right boot for fear of making a pigs ear of the clearance."

"Perhaps with hind-sight he might try to kick it clear next time, but with Nicholas Anelka standing "touch-close" behind Riise, and the centre-backs awol on "other duties", Riise stepped into the breach and dealt with a ball in the blink of an eye, which someone needed to take responsibility for and he was big enough to get something on it".

"In this instance it went in for an own goal which is unfortunate. On another night the ball ends up in row 'Z' for a goal kick.

"But had he decided not to deal with it at all, or worse still not been there, Anelka would have had the easiest tap-in to execute."

Scoring away from home in the second leg is now essential for their survival, but when he was reminded that Liverpool are yet to find the net against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge since Rafael Benítez took charge of the club in 2004, Gerrard instantly replied: "We haven't played there with Fernando Torres, have we?"

The scene is set!