Are Chelsea dreaming of Moscow because John Arne Riise was thinking about Luton? The Liverpool defender's own goal in Tuesday's Champions League semi-final, first leg makes the London club favourite to progress to the final in Russia next month. Why did Riise put his foot in it by putting his head on Salomon Kalou's cross?

Alan Hansen believes that the Norwegian's memory of his nightmare at Kenilworth Road might have caused him to make the wrong decision at Anfield.

Riise's late own goal handed Luton Town a draw in an FA Cup third-round tie in January. He tried to clear a cross from the left with his left foot and only managed to volley it off his arm and into the net. On Tuesday, deep into injury time, Riise opted to expel the ball with his head, apparently not trusting his weaker right foot, and blundered horribly.

“He should have hit it with his right foot, but he had an incident at Luton in the Cup earlier in the season where he did the same thing and it's probably in the back of his mind,” Hansen said. The Match of the Day pundit and former Liverpool defender was speaking at the launch of the BBC's coverage for Euro 2008.

“It's come to him quick, in that situation you just go with how you think is the best way of clearing it and obviously he got it wrong. You should have gone with your right and you've gone with something else - it just happens.”

As for the suggestion that an international player at a club in the top four of the Barclays Premier League ought to feel confident enough to send the ball into row Z with either foot? Hansen was sympathetic to Riise. “You're talking about half of English football who haven't got a right foot and a left foot - he's not the only one,” he said.

Hansen feels that the horrible moment will not cause any lingering psychological damage. “He'll recover very, very quickly,” he said. “You just pick yourself up. Professionals pick themselves up and get on with it. If it affects them in the next game then they shouldn't be there.”

Thanks to Chelsea's away goal in the 1-1 draw, Hansen makes them slight favourites. “If Liverpool go to Stamford Bridge and play as well as they can do, then they can win,” he said. “But if I wanted to be in anyone's position it would be Chelsea's. The difference between 1-0 and 1-1 is an absolute chasm. At the same time, Rafael Benítez [the Liverpool manager] will be focusing on the positives. The negative is the terrific [home] record of Chelsea. The positive would be Liverpool have got a great record in this competition at the semi-final stage and Chelsea have got a bad record.

“But what he was saying about the referee and the five minutes' injury time - somebody said, - How soon will he forget about that?' I say 20 seconds later because 20 seconds later that's gone. What you've got to do is focus on the game. He knows he's got the players that can turn it round and he will be focusing on the positives in that dressing-room.

“The game itself, I think he will play exactly the same way he always plays. He'll be cautious and they'll try and nick a goal. Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard didn't play particularly well in the first leg, but he knows they can turn a game in two seconds flat. If he does nick a goal, great; if he doesn't then he might change it after 65, 70 minutes.

“The big thing here is, even saying that Chelsea are favourites, it would be no surprise if Liverpool beat them. It wouldn't surprise me if it goes to extra time and penalties again. Liverpool might have won the game by two or three goals on Tuesday without playing particularly well - that shows you that when they have got their best side on the pitch they can compete with anybody.”