CHELSEA goalkeeper Petr Cech hailed his team’s ‘‘great advantage’’ after they claimed a 3-1 lead at Anfield in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal against Liverpool.

Two goals from Serbian defender Branislav Ivanovic and a third from Didier Drogba put the Blues in total control of the tie after Fernando Torres’ early opener.

‘‘I think this is a great result but it didn’t start well for us and after a few minutes we were 1-0 down, which was the last thing we wanted, but we had a great reaction,’’ he said.

‘‘Branislav scored important goals from set-plays – the second arrived at the best possible time.

‘‘The third one, they gambled and we had space on the counter-attack. I think this is a great advantage for the home leg.’’ Ivanovic added: ‘‘These are my first goals (for Chelsea) and I am very happy. We played like a team and this is great for us.’’ Cech warned his jubilant team-mates that there was still all to play for at Stamford Bridge in next week’s second leg.

‘‘We are still at half-time and you know 3-1 is great result at half-time, but we have to play the second half,’’ he said.

‘‘But now we are the favourites to go through because we have the advantage.

It will be very hard for them to score three goals.’’