IAN LADYMAN’S VERDICT
IT WOULD appear that this thrilling, unpredictable edition of the Champions League will have the final it deserves. Over the course of four semi-final games, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Roma and Liverpool have served up 20 goals.
The fact that the two finalists scored 11 of them but were only assured of progress once the final whistles blew in Madrid and Rome tells us everything.
So on to Kiev go Real and now Liverpool. The last time the pair contested the final of this competition was in 1981 when it was known rather fittingly and simply as the European Cup.
There was only one goal scored that night in Paris and it went to Liverpool. Jurgen Klopp and his players would take the same this time, but, frankly, it is impossible to imagine the decider will be that kind of game.
Is it possible to lose gloriously? It has always sounded rather glib, that one. But here in Rome’s throbbing Olympic Stadium — and indeed in the Bernathem. beu the night before — we saw that maybe it is.
At full time last night, as AS Roma’s players sank to their knees in disappointment, their supporters were in no mood to leave before they had thanked the team.
Eusebio di Francesco’s side are not a great one but they showed as much courage and spiritpirit as Liverpool will need inn the final when driving theireir opponents all the way to the finish line, like a 1500metre runner who does not know what it means to lose.
Roma are out at the death and we will certainly remember
It is not over- statingg things to say that theyey terrified Liverpool andnd their marvellous travellinglling supporters during a second half that Klopp’s teamam simply could not close down last night.
Once Liverpool scored twice in the first half Roma should have surrendered, but they didn’t and that meant we ended up witnesses to a night which it will take a long time to forget.
As for Liverpool, they are through and deserve to be.
They are a better side than Roma by more than a two-leg scoreline that eventually stood at 7-6. But this was a game that will leave its mark on them once the adrenaline of the achievement departs the system.
For example, can a player like Trent Alexander-Arnold really play in the final against a team containing somebody like Cristiano Ronaldo? After this hohorror show for the talented enttalented young full bback, it is hard to say so. But LiveLiverpool can beat Real in Ukraine, there is no doubt about that.
Liverpool, full of frailty and capriciousness as they undoubtedly are, have scored 17 times in the knockout stages of the Champions League this season and 40 times overall.
It is this which will sustain them as they attempt to dethrone the holders on May 26 and they have every reason to be optimistic.
What will Real have made of last night’s drama?
In all likelihood, it will merely have confirmed what they already knew.
Liverpool are one of Europe’s most devastating sides and a far cry from the pragmatic, sensible bunch of players who owned this competition in the 1970s and 1980s. Real, as Bayern showed us on Tuesday, are a team shot through with genius and fallibility themselves. They will head to Kiev knowing they, too, can only play one way.
If the final already feels like a shootout, that seems about right.
Liverpool did everything right here for a while and when the game stood at 1-0, 2-1 and even 2-2, it seemed inconceivable that anything could go wrong. It did go wrong, though.
It did not cost Klopp and his players a place in the final. Only an outright disaster would have done that. But this did go wrong, nevertheless.
There were moments in the second half when Roma were perilously close to scoring a third goal during a period that still saw almost 25 minutes still left on the clock.
An unkind bounce of the ball in any of those instances and Liverpool could have been making what felt like a very long journey home indeed.
Young Alexander-Arnold has been brilliant at times this season. He will surely be Liverpool’s right back for years to come.
This was a dreadful night for him, though. It was a night when his impetuosity and inexperience betrayed him.
More widely, Liverpool simply fell in to the trap of failing to keep the ball well enough in the second half. As a result the game became too stretched.
That was what Roma wanted, not Liverpool.
Klopp’s team have missed the steadying influence and young legs of Emre Can in their midfield. James Milner has worked manfully as a replacement but Real will surely look to play in and around the base of Liverpool’s midfield in the final.
Liverpool, for their part, will merely try to work the ball in the right areas. Roma had 23 attempts on goal during this game and that cannot happen again if Liverpool are to lift the trophy.
As we look ahead, though, it is this combination of sporting characteristics — both good and bad — that mean the coming weeks cannot pass quickly enough.
Who really wants perfection in sport anyway?
Real Madrid and Liverpool will hit and hit hard as they bring the curtain down on the season.
It may turn out that their respective semi-finals have merely been a rehearsal.