This is the way football should be played, really; with the reckless abandon of children on a school playground. Nobody ever played out a 0-0 at lunchtime. It was always a 10-8, or 15-6, or 21-17, if anyone could even remember accurately by the time the whistle went, when arguments continued over whether that one went over the jumper-goalpost or just inside it. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has instilled that untethered, erratic, overflowing football in his Liverpool team and it is sensational to watch for everyone. In recent years a soul-sapping style has seen great success in the Premier League, with managers such as Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte strangling the life out of matches en route to titles. But on the touchline Klopp is the equivalent of dropping Mentos into Diet Coke and he expects the football to match on the field. What kind of an aggregate scoreline is 7-6 for a Champions League semi-final? Concede six over two legs? Who cares? Score seven.
Before this match, 450 minutes had passed without Roma conceding at the Stadio Olimpico in the Champions League. They had hosted Atletico Madrid and Antoine Griezmann, Chelsea with Eden Hazard, Barcelona boasting Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. All had come before and left goalless. It took Liverpool less than nine minutes. With their first attack. Summing up their season, really: unstoppable. Roma unforgivably gave the ball away in their own half with Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane in the vicinity and there was only going to be one outcome. Mane did the honours this time. Tie over, surely? Roma needed five goals to win. Six minutes later a Liverpool calamity pulled one back for their opponents. Tie back on, a little bit. Chaotic brilliance Liverpool players celebrate at the final whistle (FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images) What was it Klopp said after they let in those two late goals in the first leg? It wouldn’t be Liverpool if they did things the easy way. Well they could not have repeated this trick if they tried 100 times in training: Dejan Lovren volleyed a clearance straight into James Milner’s head and the ball flew past Loris Karius. Milner knew absolutely nothing about it, and he probably can’t remember much about it the morning after with that kind of blow to skull. If anyone at Barcelona could bear to watch this match they will wonder how on earth they did not score here in the last round. Shocking Roma defending led to Liverpool’s second with only 26 minutes on the clock. From a Liverpool corner Roma’s defenders stood there like statues outside the Colosseum, allowing Georginio Wijnaldum to beat them to the ball and nod simply past goalkeeper Alisson Becker.
Roma still only needed four goals to avoid going out in the 90 minutes, but up against Liverpool it felt as though they’d need 14, just to make sure. Even then it might not be enough. Notching the first made Liverpool’s front trio the highest scoring in Champions League history, with 29, and the second made Liverpool the first side to score 46 goals in a single European campaign. Roma supporters around the stadium started up this deafening, ear-drum-splitting whistling when Liverpool were in possession for any length of time. You wanted them to give the ball away, just to make it stop. Perhaps that was why no-one else scored here: they made a deal instead that they’d let Roma win if they would just stop. Incredible atmosphere Liverpool fans celebrate an epic win (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images) People often say in England that stadiums with athletics tracks between the pitch and the stands make for an awful atmosphere. It has been much debated around the London Stadium. Strange, then, that the atmosphere here was as good as it gets, despite the athletics track. Maybe it is just that West Ham fans really don’t want to be in Stratford, after all, rather than the completely flat synthetic ring doing absolutely nothing to blame for the dreary environment when they play at home.
In Rome, the home fans were fervently behind their side, even trailing by four and especially when that narrowed to three, when Edin Dzeko managed to get the ball out of his feet to level on the night, early in the second half. And then some when Radja Nainggolan reduced it two with five minutes remaining, then one with a stoppage-time penalty. Still it was not enough; Liverpool had blown them away with goals. The way it should be. On playgrounds across the country, there is no doubt who they will be replicating in the coming weeks: Salah, Firmino and Mane, and their break-time scorelines won’t be far off this one.
by Sam Cunningham
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