Liverpool-Chelsea: The Take

Cech - The Petr Cech of old times is back. Kept goal brilliantly and probably had little chance with Torres's goal
Ivanovic - Superb game by the Serbian. What a time he chose to register his first goals for the blues. Ripped apart the Zonal defense of Liverpool and contained Riera well on the flanks
Alex - Caught ball-watching during the first goal but got his act together and defended rather well the rest of the game
Terry - Solid game from the captain, but looked troubled at times against Torres
Cole - Linked up well with Malouda to give the right-sided players of pool a tough time.
Essien - Guardian of the cage that Gerrard was trapped in. Excellent game.
Ballack -Put in a decent work rate and created a few chances that Drogba could have converted easily. An ok performance
Lampard - Superb in attack and set-pieces. Delivered well for Ivanovic's second goal and played wonderful through balls for Drogba. Jittery in defense though, losing the ball a few times unnecessarily
Malouda - The frenchman has returned to form at just the right game. Created two goals and was a threat throughout
Drogba - Didnt have his best game. Troubled the pool defense but his finishing was uncharacteristiocally poor. Had he taken only a couple of his chances, let alone all four, there would have been no need to play the return leg at the Bridge
Kalou - Impressive performance. Kept the Reds defense on its toes, dribbled and passed well and even tracked back to defend. Good game form the Ivorian.