4-2 Nainggolan (pen) 90min
brought a more benign kind of pressure to bear on Liverpool, the new hot ticket in European football, from a position in the Premier League table 21 points behind Manchester City.
There was a strange kind of madness about this tie, with Liverpool losing their No 2 coach, Zeljko Buvac, who left the party just as it was getting really good, Steven Gerrard being courted by Rangers and away fans having to observe elaborate travel plans to ensure their safety. Outside the ground, the notorious bridges over the Tiber stood like crossing points from a nightmare, even with the swarms of carabinieri.
Seldom has a 5-2 starting point felt so tantalising, and Liverpool could never relax
impossible position, against opponents who were also expected to fall long before this stage.
The script was that Virgil van Dijk’s defensive unit would pick up where Mohamed Salah, Mane and Roberto Firmino left off at Anfield. Liverpool would probably pinch an away goal to ease the pressure, but the main aim was stopping Roma doing what they did to Barcelona in the last round.
Roma’s fans came here thinking a second miracle was possible. Liverpool’s fought against their own belief that a 3-0 Roma win was impossible, given the effervescence of their own front trio, which reflects the modern cult of forwards working in gangs of three.
Seldom has a 5-2 starting point felt so tantalising, and Liverpool could never relax on their seemingly commanding position. The threat was always there. Salah, meanwhile, now knows the pointlessness of not celebrating goals against former clubs.
At Anfield, Salah was apologetic about his two first-half goals, raising his palms and avoiding the group hug. His reward was to be jeered by Roma fans on his old hunting ground – a more rational approach, if a little ungracious.
Roma have been derided as semi-final impostors. But you could hardly question their spirit as they chased the game from 7-4 down. They pressed and hustled, hounding Liverpool’s two young full-backs, Andy Robertson and Alexander-arnold, and giving Van Dijk the biggest test of his Liverpool career, four months in. Not unreasonably, Roma went direct, whipping diagonal balls forward and trying to create mayhem in Loris Karius’s penalty box.
With eight minutes left, Klopp sent Ragnar Klavan on as a fifth defender in place of Mane, but even then the tension was maintained – and intensified when Radja Nainggollan struck from long range with five minutes left, and then scored from the penalty spot to make it 7-6 overall. Desperation, of different kinds, gripped both teams.
Football ceases to be academic at this point. It becomes a ferocious battle of wills. You either stand or break. Purists will say that no tie with so many goals can be hailed as a classic. But it is too early in Liverpool’s return as European heavyweights to be throwing academic caveats at them.
They were forged by fire in this tumultuous semi-final, which propels them into a final against another team, Real Madrid, who made it to Kiev the hard way. Liverpool earned another stroll round the pitch and a song.