KLOPP’S SIDE BRIDGE GAP TO THE BEST

THE reason a team 17 points off the top of their domestic league can go so far in a competition that is supposed to represent the best that European football has to offer is that Liverpool have match-winners in their ranks.

This was an unstinting physical effort from Jurgen Klopp’s side on a night when they were outplayed for 45 minutes. But Liverpool have players who can score out of nowhere and two of them won them this game.

Was Mo Salah fit to start? For long periods it didn’t seem so. But in the moment that mattered, Salah came alive, forcing the ball from the grasp of City goalkeeper Ederson and then showing just enough speed off the mark to turn it into the goal before defensive cover arrived.

Roberto Firmino’s goal was also telling. He worked his socks off all night and it was fitting that his goal came about because he wouldn’t give City defender Nicolas Otamendi a second of peace in possession. Liverpool will be underdogs with Roma in the semis, but if these players are fit they will have a chance.

Much of the talk after City’s first goal was about whether Raheem Sterling fouled Virgil van Dijk. After a dozen replays, it is still impossible to tell, suggesting that the infringement was all in the mind of the Liverpool defender.

Last week at Anfield, meanwhile, Sterling didn’t even make Pep Guardiola’s starting XI. But here the England forward was fast out of the blocks and the way that he chased down Van Dijk and then stayed on his feet to funnel the ball forward said everything for the perfect way that City started. Van Dijk was guilty of one of football’s great sins in not playing to the whistle. Sterling’s alertness made him look even more foolish.

The City manager had spoken nervously about Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz after believing his team were hard done by the referee when he officiated last season’s match against Monaco. One wonders how such talk helps a manager before a big game but it did seem that Guardiola’s reservations about Señor Lahoz may have been right.

Here we are in April and still City are at it. We have wondered at times at the energy and determination evident in the way that Liverpool play and it was one of the impressive aspects of their 4-3 victory over City in the Premier League in January.

Here, though, it was City who went all terrier on us, forcing Klopp’s players to play passes and long balls that would not have been part of their plan.

City pressed from front to back with players like Kevin de Bruyne leading the way. It was a fantastic effort that went unrewarded and that takes admirable fitness but also a rare understanding of what exactly a coach wants you to do. – Daily Mail