LONDON — A victory for substance over style, strength over style, power over passing — call it what you want, but it is Liverpool not Arsenal which will play Chelsea in the Champions League semifinals.

If there has been a better, more exciting European tie than the quarterfinal, second-leg at Anfield which Liverpool won 4-2, this observer has not seen it.

As the dust settles on a titanic encounter it is still difficult to fully understand why Liverpool rather than Arsenal is in the last four. That is the joy of football — the wonderful inexplicable reason for success or failure.