Chelsea achieve European goal

Chelsea 2

“It was hard, a big battle,” he said. “But I was very pleased with the way we reacted to going a goal down.”

“I don’t think we are in the same class as Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle (the other English Champions League qualifiers) yet, but we can fight,” he said.

Chelsea are back among Europe’s elite for the first time since 1999 but must first play a qualifying round before entering the first round groups.

Ranieri left out-of-contract crowd-favourite Gianfranco Zola, 36, on the subs’ bench until 18 minutes from time.

Ranieri also wants to keep another veteran, Desailly, 34, who scored only his second goal of the season to equalise for Chelsea just two minutes after they slipped behind.

Zola reckons Chelsea should have done better than their fourth place: “It’s been a long tiring season. We could have been better, the first part of the season you might have said Chelsea would be contesting toward the end but we dropped too many points before Christmas and January.”

Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier saw his Champions League misery compounded by midfielder Steven Gerrard’s last-minute red card but said: “I wish I had a couple more players like him.”

Gerrard was dismissed for the fourth time in his career after a running battle with Chelsea’s Graeme Le Saux but Houllier whose team missed out on a return to Europe’s main event with a 2-1 defeat at Chelsea said he was a driving force in midfield.

Houllier sportingly congratulated Chelsea on making the Champions League but said: “We’ve had a difficult season and I’ve told the lads that.

"We had a period where we didn’t win many games and so it was not today which cost us Champions League football. “At least we’ve got European football in the UEFA Cup. “The temptation after you missed qualifying is to have a clear-out of the squad but I don’t think that is always right,” said Houllier.

CHELSEA: Cudicini, Melchiot, Gallas, Desailly, Babayaro, Gronkjaer (Stanic 68), Petit, Lampard, Le Saux, Hasselbaink (Cole 80), Gudjohnsen (Zola 72).

LIVERPOOL: Dudek, Carragher, Hyypia, Traore, Riise (Cheyrou 75), Diouf (Berger 63), Gerrard, Murphy, Diao (Heskey 45), Baros, Owen.

Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire).