Clean win for Jose as Rafa feels the squeeze

Either of these first legs would have made a Champions League Final at which to marvel. Manchester United against Milan was the more exhilarating, Chelsea versus Liverpool more nerve-wracking.

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Now the winner should be English football. United's searing second-half onslaught surely scorched Milan's self-belief while strengthening their own conviction that they can breach the ageing Maldini Line again in the San Siro stadium next week, thereby clinching a place in Athens next month.

The question as to which of their most ardent Premiership rivals they might meet in that final is more likely now to be answered by Chelsea.

There is a fine line between genius and lunacy, and Jose Mourinho is still on the same, sane side of that narrow divide as Sir Alex Ferguson.

There is method in the apparent madness of the Chelsea manager and the strident performance to which he motivated a weakened team last night was so masterly that he deserved the reward of at least two more goals and, with them, the certainty of a place in the final.

At least, the one plundered by Joe Cole from an Italianesque breakaway engineered by Ricardo Carvalho and Didier Drogba came in good time to protect his sanity.

For just in case Mourinho was not a laundry basket-case already, Liverpool had come to west London hell-bent on driving him crazy.

The man who had himself smuggled out of the dressing room with the washing to elude a ban from one European tie had to confront the rival domestic with a record of hanging Chelsea out to dry in the Champions League.

One more clean sheet for Liverpool and they would have been sending for the men in the white coats. Perhaps that was why Rafa Benitez seemed less intent on opening up Chelsea's defence than closing down their forwards.

Little wonder, then, that Mourinho was paranoid about Drogba being wound up, yellow-carded for a second time and thus suspended for next week's return.

As the only real obstacle to Cristiano Ronaldo adding the historic Footballer of the Year honour to his Players' Player award, Drogba comes to this showdown with an added personal incentive to hoist Chelsea into their first Champions League Final.

The football writers close their poll before the climax to the Premiership and will present the trophy before the FA Cup Final, so these European semi-finals are the last big stage on which to impress.

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Ronaldo raised the stakes with a goal and the fluent performance which put Milan on the back foot.

Thus Drogba has been challenged to do the same against a Liverpool defence latterly more parsimonious than that of the arch Italians.

The frequency and intensity of this more local rivalry makes his task no easier, since the longer and fiercer it goes, the more bitter the exchanges.

Jose reckons he would be sacked if he failed to win the English title as regularly as Benitez.

But then Mourinho can hardly forget how demanding Chelsea's Roman emperor can be when Mr Abramovich keeps inviting prospective successors like Roberto Mancini to visit Stamford Bridge on occasions like this.

Rafa finds it impossible to be Mourinho's friend. But then Benitez has discovered first hand how manic about victory over courtesy the Special One can be.

Mourinho's obsession is Chelsea's driving force and it has kept them limping valiantly along a bonejarring road in extraordinary pursuit of a Carling Cup, Premiership, FA Cup and Champions League quadruple.

How he would have welcomed the competitive instinct of an Alan Ball into his depleted line-up last night.

How heart-warming it was to hear the fans of both clubs muster the sustained applause with which football has replaced the minute's silence as the form of salute for its fallen heroes.

Then, come that 29th-minute goal, Mourinho was out of his psychological straitjacket and on his feet for the first time. Benitez was sitting down for the only time. They were trading places.

It is Jose's turn now to put Rafa through the emotional wringer. If he can finish turning that screw, it could be Mourinho against Ferguson in two grand finals.

And that could drive us all mad.