It’s interesting to see that Liverpool and Milan qualified for the Champions League Final in contrasting fashions, with the Rossoneri outplaying Manchester United over the two legs and Rafa Benitez’s men just edging Chelsea in penalty shoot-out which they seem to have been well prepared for.

After the quarter finals, I wondered in a Sportingo report  which of the three English teams would miss out. As it has turned out, it’s Liverpool who are going to make the journey to Athens, leaving United and Chelsea to wonder what could have been.

Despite their recent success, mostly in the Premiership, Chelsea have still to appear in a Champions League final. It means they are the only one of England’s ‘big four’ not to have done so, and if they continue to lack a cutting edge, as they did against Liverpool, it seems the wait is going to be a bit longer.

I think Chelsea lost the plot in the first leg at Stamford Bridge because after dominating for long periods, they could only score a single goal. A 2-0 lead would have gone a long way into securing their place in the Final because that would have required Liverpool to score at least twice at Anfield. The Blues should have been sharper in front of goal, especially in the first half of the first leg, because taking such a slender lead to Merseyside was never going to make Liverpool's life difficult.

It would also appear to me that while Liverpool practised penalties prior to the second leg, Chelsea didn’t seem to have done so. You could tell that from the poorly-taken spot-kicks and the lack of confidence in the face of the takers. Liverpool, on the other hand, were well drilled for the penalties and all their kicks were excellent.

They even brought in Robbie Fowler towards the end of extra time - presumably for his penalty-taking expertise - and that was a good move on behalf of manager Rafael Benitez.