SUCH a rare commodity in affairs involving these two sides in Europe, Joe Cole's goal was received with wonder and no small celebration as Chelsea scored a significant win over Liverpool in the Champions League semi-final first leg last night.

Trying to persuade the opposition that his Chelsea team were playing on empty was as ludicrous as Mourinho suggesting Ricardo Carvalho might spend the evening on the sideline nursing a hamstring.

This was unfinished business as far as Mourinho and his side were concerned. A hat trick of Champions League semi-final failures was quite unthinkable. Losing to Liverpool, again, after the heartbreak in 2005, was beyond the comprehension of Mourinho's boys.

A repeat of Tuesday night's swashbuckling extravaganza at Old Trafford this certainly was not. But with one goal in four previous European exchanges, no-one was expecting anyone to open the floodgates.

First blood should have been drawn by Chelsea, as early as the eighth minute when Frank Lampard's smartly struck shot was blocked, somewhat inadvertently, by Pepe Reina. Less power and more precision and Chelsea would have snatched the lead their early persistence deserved.

Pipped to the PFA Player of the Year award on Sunday, Didier Drogba launched into the Liverpool defence as if he held them personally responsible for his finishing second in the poll to Cristiano Ronaldo. Intercepting a loose pass from Xabi Alonso, the Ivory Coast striker made his first purposeful advance in the fifth minute. It took three red shirts to contain him but the damage was done - the usually unflappable Jamie Carragher sliced a clearance and Dan Agger tripped.

There is nothing quite as formidable as Drogba on the prowl. Supremely powerful and impossibly brave, he challenged for every ball, regardless of the bruising attention he received. Sandwiched and shaken, the striker still managed to nudge the ball into the path of Andriy Shevchenko on quarter of an hour. The Ukraine's cross was struck too vehemently for Cole to convert at the near post.

Denied the chance to settle, what with Claude Makelele, John Obi Mikel and Lampard closing down the spaces, it was 20 minutes before Dirk Kuyt had his first prod at goal, easily taken by Petr Cech.

The respite was shortlived. From the clearance, Drogba secured another foul, following an uncomfortable exchange with Agger. As Lampard's drive shaved the foot of Reina's right post, Stamford Bridge sensed a goal in the pipeline.

Sure enough, as Carvalho carried the ball out of defence, Drogba made his run, into a vacuum down the right. An assured pass saw the striker in possession, galloping towards the area and turning the unfortunate Agger with a nonchalant twist. The rest was simplicity itself. An early cross found a perfectly positioned Joe Cole and with a stretch of the left leg, the midfielder who has missed most of this season through injury, thrust all such miseries behind him.

Either side of the break, Steven Gerrard had chances to put the visitors level. Yet from Kuyt's intuitive delivery, the Liverpool captain looped his header over the bar and then watched as his volley veered wide, moments after Peter Crouch was introduced.

And not a moment too soon. Crouch immediately offered a focal point, providing a target to a midfield that had enjoyed little success trying to make contact with Craig Bellamy. Benitez might yet live to regret omitting the lanky striker from his starting line-up.

Chelsea (4-3-3) Cech; Ferreira, Carvalho, Terry, A Cole; Mikel, Makelele, Lampard; Shevchenko (Kalou 76), Drogba, J Cole (Wright-Phillips 84). Subs: Cudicini, Boulahrouz, Geremi, Bridge, Diarra.

Liverpool (4-4-2) Reina; Arbeloa, Agger, Carragher, Riise; Gerrard, Alonso (Pennant 83), Mascherano, Zenden; Kuyt, Bellamy (Crouch 52). Subs: Dudek, Hyypia, Gonzalez, Sissoko, Paletta. Booked Mascherano.

Referee M Merk (Ger)