Frank Lampard's emotion-charged penalty in the first period of extra-time carried Chelsea to their first Champions League final. The London side will meet Manchester United, conquerors of Barcelona, in the first all-English final in Moscow on May 21.

The England midfielder, who had not been expected to figure in this match after the death of his mother Pat, decided to play and held his nerve seven minutes into the first period to convert the kick, conceded by Sami Hyypia for a foul on Michael Ballack, to give Chelsea the advantage.

Didier Drogba added an insurance strike seven minutes later which appeared to make the game safe, only for Ryan Babel to give the visitors hope with a speculative long-range effort three minutes from the end.

Chelsea, though, prevailed, claiming a 3-2 victory on the night after a pulsating match and a 4-3 aggregate triumph overall.

Drogba it was who had given Chelsea a deserved first-half lead with an excellent finish on 33 minutes, only to see that advantage cancelled out by a goal of equal quality from Fernando Torres 19 minutes into the second half.

Chelsea were obviously keen to build more than the tenuous away-goal advantage they held from the first leg and in the early stages Drogba's 25-yarder skidded across the slick turf but Jose Reina, the Liverpool goalkeeper, turned it aside. The corner was only half-cleared and Michael Essien's follow-up was too high.

Liverpool hit back five minutes later, Yossi Benayoun drifted in from the left and found Steven Gerrard, whose magnificent first-time ball freed Torres alone inside the penalty area. The first touch from the Spaniard, who has been in prolific form this season, took him slightly wide and allowed Petr Cech to come out and narrow the angle, blocking the left-foot shot with his body.

Drogba troubled Martin Skrtel with his pace and the Slovakian defender was in obvious discomfort after making a last-ditch tackle at full stretch to deny the striker a shot at goal. Skrtel went off for treatment but was unable to continue and five minutes later made way for Hyypia.

Chelsea were in the ascendancy and Reina came out alertly to kick the ball away after a ball over the top by Salomon Kalou embarrassed the Liverpool backline and looked to pick out Drogba.

The Ivory Coast international was in irrepressible form and spurned a clear chance on 19 minutes after exchanging passes with Kalou. Drogba was clear down the left but the angle, to be fair, was slightly against him and he skewed his shot wide of the far post.

Chelsea appeared to be employing a shoot-on-sight policy but Essien's long-range effort was never going to trouble a goalkeeper of Reina's quality.

The Spaniard showed the unorthodox side to his game by electing to punch away a Ballack shot rather than gather it, before he was beaten just before the half-hour.