Liverpool 1-3 Chelsea: Guus Hiddink gives Rafa Benitez a tactical mauling

You wait five games for a goal at Anfield - and then three of them come along together.

But while the heroes of Chelsea's finest European night since they saw off Barcelona in 2005 were easy to identify, the man who made it possible was just as clear.

Rafa Benitez had mastered Jose Mourinho twice and sent Luis Felipe Scolari plunging over the abyss earlier this season.

Yet last night it was the Spaniard who was on the receiving end of a tactical mauling at the hands of Guus Hiddink, who did everything right from first minute to 90th.

Hiddink will be leaving Stamford Bridge in the summer, with Carlo Ancelotti having verbally agreed to leave Milan for SW6 at the end of the season.

After an evening like this, though, the possibility of Hiddink bequeathing a side that has already finally brought Roman Abramovich his Holy Grail of the Champions League must be a realistic one.

Chelsea did not just beat Liverpool, did not merely slay the ghosts of Anfield. They simply annihilated Benitez's Reds and could justifiably have gone back to London last night bemoaning the fact they had scored scored six or seven.

Hiddink's gamble on asking Michael Essien to be the Krytonite in Superman Steven Gerrard's pocket worked brilliantly, neutralising the elemental force of the Liverpool side.

Trusting Florent Malouda, so often the weakest link in the Chelsea dressing room, paid off in spades, the French winger creating two of the goals that left Anfield stunned into disbelieving silence.

And most crucially of all, as Didier Drogba showed why no defender in the world would want to play him, the risk in playing Branislav Ivanovic at right back in place of the injured Jose Bosingwa brought the perfect reward.

What made it all the better, all the more joyful for the Blues, was the courage they showed in adversity after going behind after just six minutes.

Dirk Kuyt had already gone close with a snap-shot but when his heel-flick found the overlapping Alvaro Arbeloa, Fernando Torres matched the cross with a perfect instant finish, giving Petr Cech no chance.

Anfield erupted, yet where Chelsea have folded in the face of the Merseyside passion play, under Hiddink's calm instructions they simply stuck to the game-plan, first gaining parity and then, conclusively, control.

In fact, the only surprise was that it took as long as 38 minutes for Chelsea to go level as they carved out chance after chance.

Drogba, a constant threat on an evening where he left the histrionics behind, could, probably should have scored twice, first firing straight at Pepe Reina and then blazing over from a pass by the excellent Michael Ballack.

Malouda, too, went close, but it was from the Frenchman's inswinging corner that Ivanovic, who had never before scored for Chelsea and was nearly sold to Juventus in January, made his first mark of the night.

Xabi Alonso lost the Serb as he darted into the box, finding the space between Kuyt Martin Skrtel to head home and become the first Chelsea player to score at Anfield in this annual grudge-match.

No more than Chelsea deserved and while Torres remained a constant threat and Cech denied Kuyt straight after the equaliser, Hiddink's men were simply a class apart.

The Liverpool fans did all they could, imploring their man to change the game, but the course, steered so ably by the wily Hiddink, was set.

Drogba, for the third time, was thwarted after he exchanged passes with Frank Lampard, held off Skrtel and slipped past Reina, as Jamie Carragher brilliantly hooked off his own line.

Then what could have been a pivotal moment in the tie, as John Terry needlessly careered into Reina to pick up the booking that rules him out of the second leg, became the cause his team-mates rallied around.

Two minutes after Terry's booking, Ivanovic was incredibly again left unmarked by the Liverpool defence at a Lampard corner, heading powerfully back and beyond Reina as Gerrard looked behind him in horror.

And to Anfield's despair and desolation, they were undone again five minutes later as Drogba belatedly got the goal his display had deserved.

It was a belter of a goal too, with Ballack sending Malouda away down the left - possibly offside although it was a wafer-thin decision - and sliding across for Drogba to consign all the previous misses to oblivion with an unanswerable finish.

There could have been more, Malouda and Ballack both denied by Reina, who ended the game inside the Chelsea box as Liverpool desperately sought some glimmer of hope.

Nobody could quibble about this one though, equalling Liverpool's worst home defeat in 45 years of European football, giving Chelsea a night to remember after all the evenings to forget. Outstanding. Simply outstanding.