The Anfield European factor was a recurring theme as the Liverpool players filed out of Stamford Bridge late on Wednesday night. Zenden has experienced it as an opponent, as have most Chelsea players from their Champions League semi-final defeat there a couple of years back, but it's an intangible that most refer to even if they can't quite find the words to explain it. "There's something special about it, " says Dirk Kuyt, an Anfield virgin until this season. "I know that now having played a couple of Champions League matches this year. There's a constant noise about the place. We will need the crowd on Tuesday and I know they will be there for us."

They may as well talk about the Anfield atmosphere because it could be the only factor exceptional and exciting about the second leg. Last Wednesday's first encounter at Stamford Bridge was something of a horror show for the football purists out there. Sure, there were individual acts of brilliance contained within it, Didier Drogba's muscular force upfront, for example, or the shot-stopping ability of both goalkeepers, Petr Cech and Jose Reina. But at the crux of the tie was a tentativeness, fuelled by fear of defeat, completely alien to what we'd witnessed the night before at Old Trafford. While that Manchester United and Milan game ebbed and flowed in wonderful tune, the second semi-final resembled an orchestra under the control of a tipsy conductor. The most structured teams in English football, and perhaps on the entire continent, put even more structure on themselves with the eyes of the world on them. For the most part, it was painful stuff to watch.

In many ways Liverpool's caution, as the away side, was completely understandable, although their general sloppiness in possession didn't help their cause. A 1-0 defeat for them was far from a disaster, in fact it was probably the second best result they could have hoped for. Chelsea, on the other hand, have a bit of explaining to do. At home, on a ground where Liverpool have yet to score during Rafa Benitez's reign, they effectively operated a fiveman midfield, even if they had two strikers in Drogba and Andriy Shevchenko on the pitch. Worse still was how they responded to going one goal up on the half-hour mark. From Joe Cole's goal until Frank Lampard's late volley was superbly saved by Reina, Jose Mourinho's side didn't manage one shot on target. They barely threatened. Drogba's physical presence up-front did cause Daniel Agger some serious problems but Chelsea's tactic of firing the ball up to him via the sky rather than the turf meant that the Ivorian's threat yielded nothing.

It was frustrating because you felt if Chelsea decided to come out and play at 10, they could have killed off the tie, never mind the game. Instead they ceded ground, seemingly happy with their lot. "They played deep in order to hit us on the counter-attack and we just couldn't get in behind their back four, " says Kuyt. "After they scored the first goal, it was difficult to play because they dropped even deeper."

Roman Abramovich's millions may be put up as a reason as to why Chelsea have become the new team that everybody loves to hate, but the negativity they regularly show when opportunity is staring them in the face is surely just as valid a reason for their ascension to that particular role. Mourinho may have made himself appear slightly silly after the game with his initial assertion that his team should have been awarded a penalty for a handball incident that occurred a good two yards outside the box, but the most striking aspect of the incident was that there was nobody in a blue shirt within spitting distance of Alvaro Arbeloa when the ball struck his arm.

"I think the 14 games we've faced Chelsea in the last three years is quite a lot and that had an effect, " says Zenden, defending the quality of the game. "You could feel a lot of tension out there on the pitch. It's not that it was a boring game, it was just that the two teams are so good defensively that didn't give away a lot of chances."

That's one way of looking at it but, wherever the truth lies, whether both sides are defensively sound or negatively structured, it would be wise to expect much of the same on Tuesday. Except, maybe, for a rip-roaring start to get the Anfield passions burning? "If you're asking me whether we'll be attacking from the first minute, " says Zenden, "I'm not so sure about that because it means Chelsea can play on the counter-attack again. We have to be focused on the fact that we have 90 minutes to score a goal. If we score in the 90th minute that means we get extratime."

Mmm. It won't be for the purist but it should prove fascinating in its own little way.