But the sending off of England striker Peter Crouch soon after Lampard's opener for a sickening challenge of John Obi Mikel marred the game.
Lampard was fortunate to see his 59th minute strike take a wicked deflection off Jamie Carragher, but the Londoners did enough to win the tie against a goal-shy Liverpool.
Shevchenko's goal was just the confidence-booster the Ukraine striker needed.
Crouch had the first effort of the game of eight minutes, but the striker, free in the Chelsea area, scuffed his shot across Petr Cech and away from danger.
But it was a fine ten-man move three minutes later which drew fine applause from the Chelsea supporters.
Salomon Kalou ended the attack with an excellent right-footed effort which goalkeeper Charles Itandje did well to prod away for a corner.
Itandje was forced into action on 25 minutes clearing the ball away with his shoulder from a Lampard shot after the midfielder took advantage of a lucky break which saw him one-on one with the goalkeeper.
A minute later and Cech produced an even better stop to prevent Lucas Leiva scoring after Liverpool opened up the Chelsea rearguard with smart one-touch play.
The second half started with a speculative long-range strike by Chelsea's Ricardo Carvalho which was deflected away for a corner.
That was followed on 52 minutes by a trademark blast from Lampard, but sadly for the England man, the ball sailed high over Itandje's crossbar.
Itandje was again called into action, parrying away a Michael Essien drive a minute later.
Liverpool should have scored on 55 minutes when Crouch had a chance to lob Cech, but the giant goalkeeper managed to get a hand to the ball and it was cleared.
Eventually Chelsea got their goal and it came from the boot of Lampard after good set-up play by Shevchenko.
Lampard received the ball just inside the Liverpool area and his right-footed shot took an unfortunate deflection off Carragher and sailed over Itandje and into the far corner of the net.
Worse was to follow 60 seconds later when Crouch was given a straight red card for a two-footed lunge at Mikel close to the Chelsea dugout.
Michael Ballack returned to first-team action for the first time since April on 67 minutes, replacing Mikel.
On 78 minutes substitute Nabil El Zhar had a shot for the visitors but it went wide as did a long-range effort by Andriy Voronin a minute later.
Shevchenko struck a fine free-kick four minutes from time but the ball was not on target.
But he was on target with a minute remaining when he drilled home from close range past a hapless Itandje.