On the night when his luck in the Champions League may finally have turned, Rafael Benítez sought solace in that familiar refuge of the unfortunate manager by blaming the officials. The Liverpool manager absolved John Arne Riise of any blame for scoring an own goal, but was less forgiving in his treatment of Konrad Plautz, the referee, whom he accused of favouring Chelsea by giving them 20 free kicks, as opposed to 16 for his own side.

Benítez was equally angered by the decision to signal four minutes of added time, with the Chelsea equaliser coming as the match entered the 95th minute.

“I’m very disappointed with the officials,” Benítez said. “Really disappointed. It’s not the first time. We knew before the game. Against Marseilles, it was more or less the same. We knew it was going to be difficult. You can’t blame the referee for the own goal at the end, but the time? One minute in the first half, four in the second. It’s difficult to explain. It was always against us. All the corners, free kicks. You cannot blame the player at the end of the day. The ball could have gone into the stands or behind.”

While the Spaniard’s frustration is understandable, his players were culpable for failing to take their chances. Fernando Torres was the biggest culprit, shooting wide at the near post in the first half and twice being denied by Petr Cech, the outstanding Chelsea goalkeeper.

“We had three clear chances,” Benítez said. “In these kind of games it’s not easy to create too many chances and we needed to take them. The body language was clear. If you concede a goal at the end, you must be really disappointed, but we need to go to Stamford Bridge to win. We had our chances. If we have them again there, we’ll take them. We have enough confidence in ourselves even if it is going to be difficult.

“Watching the team today, especially in the first 30 minutes of the second half, I believe we can do it. We can do it if we work as we did today and have a bit of luck. Look at the chances we had and the chances they had. There was a massive difference.”

Javier Mascherano offered a similar assessment, insisting that Liverpool could win the second leg despite their poor recent record at Stamford Bridge. “Nobody is unbeatable,” the Argentina midfield player said. “[Arrigo] Sacchi’s Milan weren’t unbeatable. We can beat them [Chelsea]. I’m sad because we deserved to win today. We made life difficult for them and should have won. We’ll have to do it at Stamford Bridge.”

Benítez also confirmed that he had spoken to Tom Hicks, the American co-owner, and hoped to have a formal meeting with all the club’s powerbrokers, including George Gillett Jr, the other owner, and Rick Parry, the chief executive.

“It was positive and just to say hello and arrange to meet,” Benítez said. “That will be a positive meeting. We will all be together. After the meeting, if we have something important to say, we’ll say it.”