Party time in Rome as Reds set up a Real final battle

LIVERPOOL WON 7-6 ON AGGREGATE ROMA: Ramses Becker, Florenzi, Manolas, Fazio, Kolarov, Pellegrini (Under 53), De Rossi (Gonalons 69), Nainggolan, Schick, Dzeko, El Shaarawy (Antonucci 75).

Subs not used: Nunes Jesus, Da Silva Peres, Skorupski, Santos da Silva. LIVERPOOL: Karius, Alexander-Arnold (Clyne 90), Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson, Wijnaldum, Henderson, Milner, Salah, Firmino (Solanke 87), Mane (Klavan 83). Subs not used: Moreno, Mignolet, Ings, Woodburn.

Man of the match: Van Dijk

Match rating: 8/10 Ref: Damir Skomina THERE was a comeback completed in Rome, but the only one that mattered was Liverpool’s return to club football’s greatest stage.

The English club that have won more European Cups than any other have now made their eighth Champions League final, to meet the club that have won more European Cups than any other in Real Madrid.

It is a showdown so rich in history, and really a fixture for the ages… even if it did not quite involve a performance for the ages for Liverpool to finish the job and get to Kiev.

That kind of display had admittedly come in the frenetic first leg, where the tie was really won. But it was just that this 4-2 defeat to a highly-flawed Roma — to make it 7-6 on aggregate — highlighted as many of Liverpool’s own concerning flaws as their mesmeric strengths.

Some of that was, of course, down to the comfort of the firstleg lead and the extreme distinctiveness of the situation, not to mention the natural nerves that come into play when you’re this close to something this special.

The late rally also never felt as close as some of Liverpool’s players seemed determined to make it.

That was summed up when the final whistle was blown after Radja Nainggolan had scored the penalty to bring his side within one goal of extra-time.

Roma did lay siege in the final 15 minutes of the game, but the truth was the foundations had already been more than laid for the path to Kiev.

The Serie A side made it so easy for Klopp’s to become the first team to score 46 goals in a single European campaign.

All of the impressive — and often deafening — sound that the Stadio Olimpico made came to nothing other than those nerves, and they were ultimately blown away along with that Roma back four or “defence”.

It wasn’t even that they had no answer to Liverpool’s pace in that fateful first leg. It remained as if manager Eusebio di Francesco hadn’t yet realised it was a question he needed to figure out.

Even worse was the way they played into their feet — literally.

On eight minutes, Nainggolan played the sloppiest of passes into an open area of midfield and allowed Liverpool to immediately close down on goal. Roberto Firmino collected and careered forward before releasing Sadio Mane for an easy finish.

It didn’t even have to be a particularly good finish, such was the poor quality of Allison Becker’s early dive. That was this second leg summed up. Liverpool didn’t need to be as good as they can be — or even just good — to still get through.

That was also the early goal that Di Francesco had talked