Chelsea faces Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final, and although the two teams are not traditional rivals, there is a sense of bad blood between the fans.
It's difficult to pinpoint exactly where this rivalry arose from. Did it develop recently regarding Liverpool's recent rise in success, or is it because we took their star striker in 2010, Fernando Torres? Could it also be from their main man Steven Gerrard handing in a transfer request because he wanted a move to west London?
There are several chapters in history to choose from. However, the arrival of Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez in 2004 may have been the main catalyst.
Let's take it back to the mid-2000s—Chelsea vs Liverpool. Jose Mourinho vs Rafa Benitez. Both managers came to the Premier League in 2004, but a Champions League match started their three-year feud. We'll never see a rivalry like it ever again.
The infamous 'ghost goal' was scored by Liverpool's Luis Garcia. Chelsea and Liverpool met in the Champions League Semi-Final in 2005, where only one goal separated the two sides. A questionable goal would probably have been ruled out to goalline technology in today's game. Since that semi-final, the relationship between the two sets of fans and managers had never been the same.
Jose Mourinho set the fire alight with his post-match comments. He said, "You can say the linesman's scored. It was a goal coming from the moon or from the Anfield Road stands. The best team lost and didn't deserve to lose. After they scored, only one team played, the other one just defended for the whole game."
It wasn't until the next season that Rafa Benitez hit back at the former Blues boss. He said in September of that year, "To me, Arsenal play much better football. They win matches and are exciting to watch. Barcelona and Milan too. They create excitement, so how can you say Chelsea are the best team in the world?"
Rather feisty from the Spaniard, right? In hindsight, we all know that Jose Mourinho would not take such comments lightly. Thus the beginning of a hot-tempered relationship. The irony is that in the three years of feuding, the two managers played each other 15 times! The media lived for the drama. And so did I.
Despite meeting twice in the Champions League group stage in the 2005/06 season, Jose Mourinho waited until their meet in the FA Cup that season to retaliate. Graceful in defeat as always, Mourinho took to the press following Chelsea's semi-final loss to his arch-enemy.
"Did the best team win? I don't think so. In a one-off game, maybe they will surprise me, and they can do it. In the Premiership, the distance between the teams is 45 points over two seasons."
There are several distasteful quotes between the two, including Mourinho's infamous dig aimed towards Benitez's lack of championships, months after he was fired in 2008. However, the line that sticks with me the most comes from 2007. Right before one of many epic Chelsea vs Liverpool Champions League nights, Rafa Benitez took a dig at the fans.
He said, "We don't need to give away flags for our fans to wave – our supporters are always there with their hearts, and that is all we need. It's the fans' passion that helps to win matches – not flags."
The fans were hit with a stray bullet in a fight between the two managers. Since then, it has become a tradition to light up the stadium with an unforgettable atmosphere any time the Reds travel to Stamford Bridge.
Regardless of the circumstance, Chelsea fans will put up an electric atmosphere any time Liverpool comes to town. Last month, the Blues hosted Liverpool holding them to a 2-2 draw. The celebrations for Christian Pulisic's goal were deafening.
I had not heard anything like it since Frank Lampard’s last-minute goal in their Champions League tie in 2009. The match ended 4-4 to take Chelsea into in semi-final.
There may not be a deep-rooted history between the two clubs. In fact, if you ask fans of the younger generation about the feud with Liverpool, they probably wouldn’t understand. As the pair go into yet another cup clash against each other, we can expect the decibels to be through the roof.
Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel both know what is at stake. I look forward to seeing who comes out on top.
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