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Liverpool fans HELPED Chelsea ruin Reds title dreams - Mark Schwarzer
LIVERPOOL fans gave Chelsea an extra incentive to win their pivotal 2014 clash which ultimately cost the Reds the Premier League title.
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The infamous Steven Gerrard slip in which Demba Ba went on to score the only goal of the game still haunts the majority of Liverpool fans.
Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea put out a largely second-string side, with a Champions League semi-final against Atletico Madrid on the horizon.
Schwarzer started in goal for the visitors and has revealed how Liverpool fans spurred his side on.
The shot stopper remembers clearly the frosty reception his team’s coach got upon entering Anfield.
“The Liverpool fans actually thought they had won this game before it kicked off,” Schwarzer told Sky Sports News.
“It wouldn’t have made us want to win any more but it added a bit of incentive to prove people wrong.
“We are here now and we are here to prove we’re not going to be a push over.”
Chelsea were booed by the home fans for time wasting throughout the clash.
But that was part of Mourinho’s masterplan all along.
“I think we were very confident with the tactics Jose Mourinho had come up with and wanted us to employ,” Schwarzer added.
“I know people were not happy with it. There was a lot of time wasting going on.
“But I think that any team that came up against Liverpool that season, the way that they played and the intensity they started games, the best way to knock them off their game was to slow them down.
Steven Gerrard on famous slip that lost Liverpool 2014 title
“It helped us get the result that we wanted.
“Deep down in the back of our minds we knew [the title] was pretty much gone.
“But you never know in football so this was an opportunity tog et another three points and put ourselves back in the title race.”