Since cranes aren't allowed to operate near the Christmas holidays because of traffic, to get the sky box off the roof they had to take it apart in pieces that fit into the hotel's freight elevators.
But their renewed optimism was dashed less than a minute later as Messi raced up the other end and teed up Keita just inside the Shakhtar box, the Mali midfielder crashing a magnificent left-foot drive into the roof of Pyatov's net.
And Blackburn heaped more misery on Liverpool before half-time when Benjani picked up the ball inside the box, spun Sotirios Kyrgiakos expertly and smashed a fierce effort past Reina and into the roof of the net.