John Arne Riise stood doubled over in his tiny corner of football hell. Agony engulfed him. One by one, team-mates offered a pat on the back, a handshake, or just a touch, some form of human contact to show they cared. None of it did much good. He walked, step by aching step, to the sanctuary of the dressing-room, discarding bits of the apparatus of the professional footballer as he went. A tie-up here, a shin pad there.

He clamped down on his water bottle and held it between his teeth, like a bit to stop him gnawing through his bottom lip. A camera zoomed in to show muscles around his eyes and mouth tensing as his mind worked overtime. He looked like Harold Shand being driven to his execution in the final scenes of The Long Good Friday. A replay of every mistake he had made to get there was showing on his face.

People at this club, of all clubs, know that football is not a matter of life and death, but a senseless own goal in front of the Kop in the last minute of a Champions League semi-final — against Chelsea, of all opponents — is as bleak as it gets without tragedy occurring.

Riise, a second-half substitute for the injured Fábio Aurélio, had no one near him when he stooped low in his penalty area and directed Salomon Kalou’s cross past José Manuel Reina. It was as irrational and panicked a decision as the one that resulted in Kolo Touré conceding a penalty here when Arsenal were all but through to the last four of the Champions League two weeks ago.

This time it was Liverpool’s turn to howl in frustration. The gallows humour that abounded when Riise was summoned for a drugs test did little to lighten the mood. Considering his mental state, he should have been prescribed antidepressants, not required to demonstrate that his system was chemical free.

At least, unlike Arsenal, Liverpool have the hope of redemption in a second leg a week today and both teams will believe that there is all to play for at Stamford Bridge, even if the advantage is with Chelsea, with the benefit of the away goal. They will take heart from the way Fernando Torres was largely contained by the central defensive partnership of John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho and from the fact that it took a rare mistake by Frank Lampard to pave the way for Liverpool’s goal. Equally, Rafael Benítez will be buoyed by the fortuitous nature of Chelsea’s equaliser and the truth that his team created the best chances.

Indeed, the tie could have been as good as concluded had Petr Cech not tipped over a shot by Steven Gerrard in the 84th minute and had a late chance for Martin Skrtel at the far post not been blocked. Yet this will be little consolation, and certainly not for Riise. Decent guy that he is, Avram Grant, the Chelsea first-team coach, did not offer his hand as Chelsea’s scorer trudged by at the end. That could have been misinterpreted as sarcasm and would have been too painful.

Until Riise’s hapless intervention, the tie had been tilting in Liverpool’s favour. Even had the home team recorded the most basic margin of victory, Chelsea would have needed to score twice as many goals in the second leg than they had recorded in five previous Champions League semi-finals against Liverpool. Instead, a goalless draw will be good enough.

Although Liverpool created the finer chances, in defence, Chelsea were impressive and Torres, in particular, had a quiet night. He fought hard and put his body on the line, but on the one occasion the Spaniard did escape the clutches of Terry and Carvalho, in the 30th minute, he found Cech equal to the task.

The game was better than expected. Not a thing of beauty, perhaps, but livelier than many predictions, with Chelsea having much of the initial first-half play, but with little impact in front of goal. Liverpool, by contrast, although hardly at a peak, had a sharper cutting edge and when they scored with three minutes to go in the first half the event had been coming.

The pity was that it punished the best player on the field until that moment — Lampard. The midfield player’s range of passing had been superb and he was largely responsible for every attack made by Chelsea. His first mistake, however, was a huge one and its impact on Chelsea’s season potentially calamitous. After Terry had stooped low to head a cross clear of goal, Lampard was too fussy playing his way out of trouble on the edge of the area and was caught in possession by Dirk Kuyt. The ball ran loose, Xabi Alonso brought it under control and tapped it to Javier Mascherano, whose chip found Kuyt.

An underrated finisher, who has come into his own in a wider position in the latter half of the season, Kuyt showed determination under the pressure of a wild and inaccurate tackle by Claude Makelele to slip the ball under Cech. Timing is everything in football. Kuyt’s was perfect, ripping the confidence from Chelsea.

The visiting team carried that misery into the second half and, a chance for Florent Malouda aside, threatened little. Liverpool, by contrast, upped the tempo and could have got two or three. It helped that their forward players were committed to the task, unlike Didier Drogba, the Chelsea striker, who had one of those infuriating matches in which he wasted more time on imagined slights than he did doing his job.

In the first half, for example, when Chelsea and Malouda in particular were enjoying a strong spell, Drogba went down in the centre circle, even though he could have carried on. The break in play allowed Benítez to have a chat with Álvaro Arbeloa, the right back, who was struggling, but from that moment he never looked back.

Another collapse by Drogba stole the momentum from Chelsea’s play at a rare point in the second half when they were gathering a head of steam. Benítez should have sent him a thank-you note, perhaps in exchange for the one heading north for Riise.

Liverpool (4-4-1-1): J M Reina — Á Arbeloa, J Carragher, M Skrtel, F Aurélio (sub: J A Riise, 60min) — D Kuyt, X Alonso, J Mascherano, R Babel (sub: Y Benayoun, 74) — S Gerrard — F Torres. Substitutes not used: C Itandje, S Hyypia, P Crouch, J Pennant, Lucas Leiva.

Chelsea (4-3-3): P Cech — P Ferreira, R Carvalho, J Terry, A Cole — M Ballack (sub: N Anelka, 85), C Makelele, F Lampard — J Cole (sub: S Kalou, 62), D Drogba, F Malouda. Substitutes not used: Hilário, A Shevchenko, J O Mikel, Alex, J Belletti. Booked: Terry.

Referee: K Plautz (Austria).