Chelsea force draw at Anfield

By Mike Collett

LIVERPOOL (Reuters) - Chelsea escaped from Liverpool with a 1-1 draw after the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Tuesday, rescued by an injury time own goal from substitute John Arne Riise.

Dirk Kuyt had given Liverpool the lead after 43 minutes when he fired between goalkeeper Petr Cech's legs and with almost five minutes of injury time played, it looked as though Liverpool would take a deserved lead to Stamford Bridge for next week's second leg.

However with Austrian referee Konrad Plautz looking at his watch, Chelsea substitute Salomon Kalou lofted one last high ball into the Liverpool penalty area.

Riise, who had replaced the injured Fabio Aurelio after 62 minutes, stooped to try and head the ball clear, but instead headed it past helpless goalkeeper Pepe Reina and into the roof of his own net.

It gave Chelsea a share of the spoils they hardly deserved as Liverpool dominated for long periods but were denied by some outstanding saves from Cech.

With time almost up it looked as though the seventh meeting between the teams in the Champions League in the last four seasons was about to end in a 1-0 scoreline for the fourth time.

Instead this match became the first to produce two goals and leave the tie on a knife-edge with Chelsea the slight favourites to advance to the final in Moscow on May 21.

Barcelona and Manchester United open their semi-final battle at the Nou Camp on Wednesday.