Twenty minutes before the kick-off George Gillett was leaning over the directors' box, smiling and chatting animatedly as he posed for photographs with fans. He seemed to be enjoying it so much his security man practically had to drag him away to take his place among the dignitaries.

Five minutes later he was at it again, before resuming his seat next to Tom Hicks, his fellow American and co-owner of Liverpool FC.

As the Kop sang their anthem before the arrival of the teams, at a volume that did not so much tingle the spine as threaten to dislocate it, Hicks even moved his lips and held up his club scarf. These guys may have come from nowhere to take over one of English football's greatest institutions, but you have to give them credit for one thing: they get the point. Last night you could hardly miss it. Unless you were Roman Abramovich, that is. An event that drew a host of celebrities, from Pierluigi Collina to the England secondrow partnership of Martin Johnson and Ben Kay, seemed not to warrant the presence of Chelsea's Russian owner. Maybe the memory of what happened two years ago deterred him from making the trip. Or perhaps it was just business.

But what an occasion this was for English football - or, to be more precise, for the men behind the Premiership, knowing the contest between two of their clubs would produce one finalist in Athens in three weeks. Above all, it was a night that advertised to all Europe the persistence of the celebrated passions that animate and sustain football, English-style.

When the clubs met at the same stage of the competition in 2005, Liverpool erected a four-tier defence. Didi Hamann and Igor Biscan sealed up the midfield. Behind Jerzy Dudek, the Kop's hot breath acted like a blowtorch on Chelsea's morale, which shrivelled away. Last night six of Chelsea's starting line-up - Petr Cech, John Terry, Claude Makelele, Joe Cole, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba - knew what to expect.

This was a highly percussive encounter, with an early sense that players were living on a disciplinary knife-edge. But virtually every incident was an expression of competitive vigour rather than malice, and Sr Manuel Mejuto did well to restrict the first-half cautions to one, for Ashley Cole's foul on Jermaine Pennant. Nor was the referee buying Drogba's histrionics. Another sign of the heightened emotion was the sight of the two managers constantly active in the technical area. Throughout last week's first leg Rafael Benitez held the stage virtually alone as Jose Mourinho lounged in his seat. Last night Mourinho played his part in the theatricals.

The Kop had their reward after 22 minutes when Steven Gerrard and Daniel Agger executed a training-ground exercise to perfection. This was a much better match than last week's opening episode, with Liverpool unsurprisingly far more assertive than they had been at Stamford Bridge.

• Guardian Service