Report by
Dave Usher
This is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. What this team is doing on this stage is incredible. Unprecedented even, certainly for an English team anyway. Forget the late lapse that cost us two away goals, that was irritating but it’s merely a footnote to one of the most amazing performances in club history. This was the semifinal of the European Cup and we were 5-0 up.
Not just that, we were making Roma look like a pub team. This just isn’t supposed to happen. So we gave them a lifeline and it finished 5-2, but the Italians know how fortunate they are that they still have a punchers chance in the second leg, because in boxing terms this would have been stopped after an hour.
Roma were crawling around on their hands and knees looking for their gum shield. We let them get back up to land a couple of jabs but I reckon next week we’ll mop the floor with them. Why shouldn’t we feel confident? This European campaign is like no other that has gone before. The tense, tight, wars of attrition we’ve usually had in Europe have been nowhere to be seen this year. It’s just been all out attack and beating the shit out of everyone.
We’ve won five European Cups and a few UEFA Cups too, but we’ve never done anything like this. It’s not like we’re even the best team in our own country (or second best if the ‘table never lies’) yet we’re just snotting everyone when it comes to this competition. Not just beating them, completely fucking dismantling them.
We’d already scored more goals than any English team had ever managed and we just added five more to it. We’re the only team to have had two players in double figures, and the top three individual goalscoring seasons we’ve had in the Champions League are Salah, Firmino and Mané, all THIS SEASON!! All three of them have beaten Gerrard’s best season when he got seven.
We’re the best attacking side in the world, yet Roma’s coach seemed to have no idea. He blew it. Has he ever seen us play? Those fucking snails in his back three against what my mate Julian refers to as our “jet powered racing snakes”. It was a mismatch, but you level the playing field by sitting deep and not giving them room to run.
Remember the line from Carvalhal about how a formula one car can’t burn you off if it’s stuck in rush hour traffic? That Elvis Costello looking goon from Roma sent out his three wheeled van on an open motorway thinking it could keep up with our Ferrari. I’m not complaining, I hope he does the same thing next week. In fact, he might have to because he’s three goals down and has to chase the game.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing though. They defended high, presumably with the intention of pressing us in our own half. It worked for 15 minutes too, they looked useful in the opening stages even though we still managed to cut them open a couple of times. They had one or two moments as well, not least when Karius made a complete hash of a Kolorov shot and was lucky to see it come back off the bar.
As soon as our players figured out what they were doing though it was fucking carnage. Wijnaldum more than played his part in it. He came on early for the desperately unlucky Ox (fucking devastated for him) and just started making runs right through the centre, and no-one bothered tracking him.
Roma’s midfield wanted to press but there was nobody to press because we started just getting it to Trent and Robbo and having them knock it over the top. And it worked. Every time. It was amazing. The full backs would just knock it into the space and get their defence turned around, and usually one of Gini, Milner or the front three was on the end of it. And at no point did Roma put a stop to it.
Mo’s opening goal was stunning. What a finish. I loved his second goal even more though, as that was just this team all over. A ball cleared out of defence, a stunning first time lay off from Salah, who then set off on his bike and let Firmino do what Firmino does. There’s no finer sight in football than a Liverpool fast break. Exhilerating, I fucking love it.
Mo didn’t celebrate either goal but that’s ok because Firmino has enough celebration in him for a whole team. The karate kick after the second looks like it might have even clipped the top of Mo’s hair! I’m struggling to remember a player who made me laugh as much as Firmino does. Fucking loon.
Lovren then hit the bar with a header and at this point I had two thoughts. First, how many would we get. Second, were Roma capable of doing anything at half time to stem the tide. I suspected the answer to the second question was no, so I was expecting four or five, possibly even more based on how the first half had ended.
Their coach did make a change but it was to send on another striker. Bizarrely, the high line and back three remained. Predictably it was more carnage. Their players looked shell shocked and had no answer to what we were doing. In fairness to them, they were playing to orders and those orders were batshit mental.
It was so easy at times, but it’s because we make it look like that. Criticise Roma all you like, and I will, but how come no-one else has done this to them? Granted, they played into our hands, but you’ve still got to be able to put the ball in the net and but for the fact “Bad Sadio” made an unwelcome return we might have got double figures.
Mané missed two great chances in the space of a minute when it was 0-0. It didn’t do us any harm, in fact those chances seemed to wake us up and we were rampant after that, but he never looked himself for the rest of the game. He had chances to blow by their slow defenders but just seemed to lack his usual conviction.
Mo put a goal on a plate for him early in the second but he actually nearly missed that one. It wasn’t the cleanest contact and it almost sneaked wide on him, but it went in and his relief was obvious. It still didn’t really get him going though, but when everyone else is playing like this is hardly matters. Mo did the exact same thing again to tee up Bobby for a well deserved goal, and his second came soon after when he headed in a Milner corner.
Ten goals in eleven CL games for Firmino, which ties the record previously held by Adriano. Nine assists for Milner, which is also a record. As I said, this campaign has been like nothing we’ve seen before, it’s unbelievable. I hope everyone is savouring this for what it is. All the things our fathers and grandfathers seen, but in terms of the football none of it has reached the levels of what we’ve witnessed in Europe this season. It still needs to be finished off, and unless we win the trophy it won’t really count for much in the long run, but sometimes you have to stop and smell the flowers.
Honestly, we’ve seen half a dozen performances this season that 95% of clubs in this country have never even come close to matching. Our understandable obsession with ending our title drought looms like a big fucking raincloud over everything, and I’m as bad as anyone for that. Earlier in the season I may have even said I’m not arsed about this competition at all because I’m so desperate to win the title again. I talk some absolute bollocks sometimes.
This European run has been fucking great and I don’t think everyone actually appreciates just how incredible this team has been. A lot of it is “Yeah they played well, but…” Forget the but, if you’re looking for perfection you’re going to be disappointed. I keep saying it, but it really is like nothing we’ve ever seen before at this level. What’s really bizarre is how there is so much focus on any negative, almost at the expense of enjoying the positive.
Take the two goals conceded late on. I get it, I was really disappointed by it too and it did take the shine off the result for a little while. It was unnecessary, but when I read and hear all the shit flying Lovren’s way it makes me want to circle the wagons. I know he’s not everyone’s cup of tea but all defenders make mistakes, and the nature of how he is asked to play by Klopp puts him more at risk than most.
He was fucking brilliant in this game until he was beaten by a fantastic pass from a world class player and a good finish from a prolific forward. Could he have done better? Of course. But fuck me, we’ve just completely smashed an Italian team in a Champions League semi and people want to wring their hands over Lovren not being perfect?
The goal gave Roma hope and our legs looked to have gone by that point, so it all got a bit ropey. The penalty was ridiculously harsh though, I mean how was Milner supposed to get out of the way of that? Both goals were a symptom of a wider issue for me though. We run out of gas on 80 minutes almost every week. I think I mentioned it in the West Brom report, but if I didn’t I certainly meant to.
It happened at Everton. They didn’t have a kick until the last ten minutes then they could have scored three. It happened at home to Bournemouth too. 2-0 up and cruising and then suddenly the clock turns 80 and they’re all over us. We managed to weather the storm and add a third goal that day, but the point stands. Then it happened at West Brom, and now in this one.
Salah going off was the problem. It shouldn’t be, but it clearly was. It sent out the message that we were happy with what we had and the players eased off and stopped attacking. It also gives the opposition a huge lift. West Brom benefited at the weekend and Roma did this time.
It’s hard to criticise Klopp for that though. If you can’t rest your star forward with a 5-0 lead then when can you? It wasn’t like Danny Ings was the problem either. He never stood a chance because we stopped attacking and didn’t get him the ball. I definitely think it’s a fatigue thing, and with the squad being stretched to breaking point now it’s not like Klopp can rest anybody just yet.
So while the last ten minutes were a little deflating at the time, having slept on it I’m not particularly arsed about it now. We’ve got a three goal lead and we’ve shown we’re miles better than them so what’s to be concerned about? Nothing. Which is why I’m not concerned. This isn’t Man City we’re playing.
Our players were fucking brilliant. I don’t even want to single anyone out as I thought they were all great, but obviously Mo was just something else. What makes it even more amazing is that he’s under so much scrutiny at the moment but he’s actually getting even better. All eyes were on him after he won the Player of the Year, and with it being against his old team that just put him under an even brighter spotlight. And THIS is how he responds? Fucking hell, what a player.
It was funny watching the tunnel footage before the game. Mo went up to all of his old mates and was hugging them and exchanging pleasantries. All except Kolorov, who turned his back on him. How’d that work out for you, numbnuts?
Roma are clinging to the hope they can repeat what they did against Barca in the last round. Can’t blame them, you have to look for hope wherever you can find it. Thing is though, we’re not Barcelona. We’re physically stronger, fitter, faster and far less likely to be undone by complacency.
Barca expect to have 80% possession every time they play and that’s how they build attacks. We can have 10% possession and still score three, because all we need is to win it in our own box and within two passes it’s in the opposition net. Don’t believe me? Look at our second goal.
The Italian press are talking of how Roma aren’t out of it and they can perform another miracle. I bet Roma’s players and coaching staff feel differently. They were on that pitch. They know. They’ll be fucking terrified of getting humiliated on their own pitch, especially by Mo who put the fear of God into them. We won’t go there and sit back, and we won’t go there and be complacent.
That’s the thing with this Liverpool team, they don’t really give a fuck if the game is at Anfield or on the moon. They’ll play the exact same way anyway. Roma have to attack us next week and when that happens there’s usually only one outcome. Carnage.
I can’t wait for it, knocking them out will be extra sweet because of the antics of those shitbag ‘ultras’. Not tarring all Roma fans with that brush and most of them are just normal fans, but anyone who refers to themselves as an ‘ultra’ is a cunt. What happened outside the Kop before the game was despicable and hopefully the fella will pull through and the perpetrators will rot in jail. In a jail over here, not back home where they’ll be with all their gobshite ‘ultra’ mates. I just hope all our lads who go over there next week come back safe and sound.
Team: Karius; Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Milner, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Wijnaldum); Mané, Firmino (Klavan), Salah (Ings):
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