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How do I even begin to describe that? Some will say it’s the greatest comeback in our history. Not for me. Istanbul is the greatest comeback because it was a final and because we only had 45 minutes to turn it around. Also, that team (with all due respect to them) were massively outgunned. That Liverpool team were vastly inferior to AC Milan. Hell, that 2005 team finished below Everton in the table. What they did was a miracle. This wasn’t a miracle, it was just the best performance in the club’s illustrious 127 history. It wasn’t a miracle because these boys are so good. They’re better than Barcelona and they should be beating them. They proved it last week, despite the scoreline. And they put that injustice right at Anfield with a performance that, for me, blows away anything else I’ve seen. To win 4-0 without Bobby and Mo and with absolutely no margin for error just makes it even more of an accomplishment. Seriously, tell me a performance better than this? I'll wait. You can come up with some heroic against the odds wins (we’ve had plenty) but you can’t tell me that the team has ever played better than this, against world class opposition, while needing to score four goals without reply to win. The best player in the world, perhaps of all time, came to Anfield and was kept quiet. An away goal might have killed us off but it didn’t come because the entire team defended like heroes. The entire team attacked like heroes too. This was a complete performance and it was as close to perfection as you’re ever likely to see. Honestly though, I wasn’t surprised. That’s not to say I expected the lads would do it, but it didn’t shock me that they did. Klopp’s pre-match rallying cry to them summed it up. “It’s impossible, but because it’s you, there’s a chance”. And also because it’s Anfield. My expectations prior to the game were that we’d win and that we’d score at least three or four. I was just as convinced that we wouldn’t be able to keep them out though, so whether we would go through would depend on if we could get five, which I saw as probably being a bridge too far. Going into the game I’d have given us a 20% of going through. After the early goal, it was up to 50%. By the time it went to 3-0 it was up to 85% and when the fourth went in I’d have put it at 95%. How could I be that confident with a 3-0 deficit and Messi and Suarez in opposition? It sounds corny, it sounds like a cliché and everyone who isn’t us absolutely hates it being mentioned, but it’s proven fact that there is nowhere in the world quite like Anfield on a European night. Nothing is impossible. We've seen the impossible before, so why would we not think it could (though not necessarily 'would') happen again? If we’d needed to score five to win this game we probably would have. Maybe even six. No Salah or Firmino? No problem. You could have taken Mané out to and started Rhian Brewster, and the outcome would still have been the same because it’s us, at Anfield. Barcelona will get stick for collapsing, but the Spanish media shouldn’t be too harsh on them. They played as well as they were allowed to. This wasn’t about them and their ‘failings’. It was about our lads. These incredible players who are doing superhuman things. Remember when we thought they were mentally weak? Not any more. There's no-one like these lads. To quote Klopp they're 'fucking unbelievable'. There seems to be no hurdle they can't overcome. I’ve genuinely never seen anything like this. 94 points with a game to go and they’re in second place. They saw City scrape a spawny win the night before thanks to a one in a million pot shot from a player who normally couldn’t hit Romelu Lukaku’s arse with a cricket bat. It knocked the stuffing right out of me, so it has to be demoralising for them. Yet 24 hours later they take to the field, 3-0 down against Messi’s Barcelona, and they do THAT?? No wonder Klopp can’t stop dropping F bombs everywhere whenever a microphone is put in front of him. How do you describe these lads without swearing? Somehow ‘they’re unbelievable’ or ‘I love them’ just doesn’t cut it. It needs a ‘fucking’ thrown in there for added emphasis. Ask the Pope what he thinks of this team and I expect his response will be “yeah they’re fuckin’ boss aren’t they?”. Barca rested all eleven starters at the weekend in preparation for this game. Good job they did, imagine how many they’d have lost by if they didn’t have fresh legs. Our boys, meanwhile, were travelling up to the North East for an energy sapping, emotionally draining, roller coaster of a game with Newcastle. Most of the starters from that game started this one too, and tired legs will have been a concern. Yet at the end they were all still flying around, fuelled by the manic atmosphere inside the stadium. You what makes this even more impressive? Barcelona lost a three goal lead last year at Roma, so it’s not as though we could rely on them being complacent. It's happened before and they were determined to avoid it happening again. Ooops! They knew what to expect from us and they knew the tie wasn’t over. If you think back to last week, remember how Messi reacted when Dembele missed that late sitter? Not the reaction you’d expect at 3-0 up. But he knew. They all knew. It wasn’t over, but if they could score at Anfield it probably would be. That was my concern, not whether we could score enough goals. Anfield would take care of that side of things but if Messi was Messi then it wouldn’t be enough. He wasn't though. He wasn’t allowed to be. The tone was set very early when Milner clattered him. Fabinho then dumped him on the floor with a perfectly timed challenge as Messi drove towards the box. As he sat on the floor, Robbo shoved the back of his head on his way past. Messi was furious. He was rattled. Why? He has to deal with rough stuff every time he steps onto the field. When you’re as incredible as he is opponents will always try to get physical to even the odds. He’s used to it but this got to him because he knew he was in a real game. Even with a 3-0 lead, he knew. After last week’s game Barca’s players were reportedly shattered and Messi told them it was because they played the game at Liverpool’s pace, and they’re not physically equipped to do that. He wanted them to play at their pace in the second leg. At Anfield? Yeah good luck with that. You can’t play out from the back when you’ve got opponents flying at you from all directions and sixty thousand fans screaming. Even the best, most composed of players are going to struggle with that. We were right in their faces, playing the game in their half and it took no time for us to get that early goal we needed. Matip’s cross field ball wasn’t the best but Mané anticipated what Alba was going to do and he seized onto his poor header. His touch to get the ball into Henderson’s path was world class. Hendo took it beautifully, shifted it out of his feet and hit a low shot that Ter Tegen could only parry into the path of the lurking Origi. The man on the spot. Again. That was just what we needed and the players wanted to capitalise on it immediately. With so much time still to play it’s easy to say they should play patiently, but when you’ve got this kind of momentum and the opposition are rattled, you need to take advantage of that. If a boxer has his opponent reeling in the first round he’s not going to hold back because there are still another eleven rounds to go. No, when their legs are wobbling you go for the knockout. We went for it and we almost had them a few times but the second goal didn’t come and Barca were able to weather the initial storm. In fact, the last fifteen minutes of the half saw them get a lot of the ball and cause us some problems. Most annoyingly though, many of our problems (just like last week) came from our own corners. They kept clearing them and getting the ball to Messi to start counter attacks. Messi will be criticised for his performance but I still thought he was brilliant. His balance when running and the perfect weight on his passes are almost taken for granted. If he doesn’t score two or three goals everyone wonders what’s wrong and says he had a bad game. He didn’t have a bad game, we just did a hell of a job of keeping him quieter than anyone usually manages. In the first half alone he forced a save from Alisson, had two shots fizz just wide and put chances on a plate for Coutinho and Alba. And this is while we’re playing him brilliantly. That’s how good he is. His influence waned in the second half as we just wore him down in the end, but in the first half he was a constant danger. Let’s face it, he’s good. He’s one of only a handful of players out there who might improve our starting eleven. He’d need to up his work rate though as all that standing around on the halfway line with his hands on his hips wouldn’t fly here. We’d played really well in the first half but I was glad to get to half time because it looked like we’d dropped a bit of intensity and needed to regroup. We also had a couple of injuries that needed dealing with. Hendo took a bang to the knee and looked in trouble initially, but he was able to resume after lengthy treatment. The same thing with Robbo. He looked really bad at one point but he managed to finish the half. I thought he’d be ok, but sadly he wasn’t. That was such a massive blow because after 3/4 of this tie he’d been the outstanding player from either side. Suarez did for him, but I’ll get to him later. Ironically, without that injury things may not have turned out as they did, as it was Robbo’s replacement who turned the tie on its head with two goals in as many minutes. He’d only been on ten minutes and he’d scored twice. The first came after some dogged play by Trent. Initially he gave the ball away to Rakitic with a poor header, but he quickly closed down Alba to win it back before running down the line and whipping a low ball in to Gini, who arrived at the perfect moment to rifle in first time. Tell me again how Alba is the best left back in the world? He's a rich man's Moreno and a B&M Bargains Robbo. Mad celebrations after that goal, but nothing like what would happen a couple of minutes later. Shaq whipped one in from the left and Gini soared like Michael Jordan, hanging in the air and planting a header in the top corner. It’s only when you watch that goal in slow motion you see how beautiful it is. Like Gini himself, the beautiful bastard. Is there a more beautiful man on the planet? Not for me. If you were designing the perfect face, it’d be Gini’s. The bone structure, the hairline, the smile. Beautiful. Anyway, I digress. All hell broke loose when that went in and Lovren led the charge of the subs to get there and celebrate with him. He was fourth to arrive on the scene, which is quite impressive. He loves a celebration does big Dejan. When the winning goal went in, only Shaqiri got to Origi before Lovren did. He might not have got on the pitch but he was still the king of the post match celebrations and he’s still at it today, posting his mad shit on instagram. That fourth goal though. Bloody hell. The presence of mind of Trent to do that, in that situation, is just astonishing. Initially I assumed that was a planned training ground move as they sold it so well. No-one was in a rush to get to the box, Shaq trots over slowly, Trent looks like he’s going to leave it to him and then BAM! Fooled you all, suckers! All except Divock. And this is one of the most impressive things for me. It would have been a great goal if it had been planned and practiced, but it’s even better because it wasn’t. Origi wouldn’t have been expecting the ball, but he reacted brilliantly and that was a fucking brilliant finish because it would have been easy to smash that over the bar. Great ball, great improvisation and a hell of a finish. One of my favourite goals of all time. Suarez said Barcelona defended it like kids and he’s right. You know why though? Anfield. When it’s like this, even the most experienced players can get rattled and forget how to do the most basic of things. It wears you down. It’s how we were able to score three in 25 minutes against Dortmund the other year too. Having gotten in front the only worry was that we might sit back and invite pressure. They had to come at us which meant Messi would see more of the ball. They didn’t really threaten though. Messi had one sight of goal in the second half when he shot straight at Alisson from a tight angle. Other than that he was completely Fabinho’d. The one time he got away from the big Brazilian his run was brought to an unceremonious halt by Matip who gladly took a booking. Even though it meant a free-kick from the exact same spot he scored from last week, it was a better scenario than letting him run any further. This time the wall blocked the free-kick, and Lineker and Ferdinand had to put their cocks back in their trousers. I loved the way we saw out the final few minutes. The defending was brilliant. Blocks and interceptions all over the place, and we did well to counter and get the ball up the other end of the pitch. Milner managed to waste at least a minute all on his own by taking the ball down the line and winning a free-kick. Big Games James coming through again. The scenes afterwards just make me well up. I’ve watched them over and over last night and today, and each time it’s something different that gives me a lump in my throat or just has me laughing. There was Des Kelly from BT Sport going the full Brendan Rodgers and getting handsy with all the lads. I thought he was going to try and snog Divock. Not that I blame him. Getting anything out of Sadio was an uphill task though. He just stood there grinning before eventually blurting out “I don’t know what to say” and having Gini come in and take over. That was funny, as was Lovren’s instagram afterwards and his dance off with Brewster. He’s off his head him. I know a lot of fans don’t like him but he’s a big part of that dressing room and the great spirit they’ve got. I’d like to go for a pint with Dejan as I reckon he’d be a laugh and we’d hit it off just by bitching about Sergio Ramos for an hour or two. I’d prefer an Irn Bru and a Suarez rant with Andy Robbo, but Dejan would be sound too. There was loads of other stuff I loved as well. Bobby hugging Origi (the man who took his place in the side). Mo just casually strolling around, smiling, in his ‘never give up’ t-shirt. Shaq’s muscle flex to Sturridge when he was being replaced. Mignolet’s tweet about Alisson (what a fucking team man Mignolet is, a pro’s pro). Klopp lining everyone up to sing YNWA in front of the Kop. Spine tingling. Gini crying at full time. Milner crying at full time. Trent’s lap of honour when everyone else had gone. Hendo struggling to get through his interview without crying, and then marching across the pitch singing ‘Allez Allez Allez”. Hendo. Fucking Hendo. I love that lad. All the weird criticism he gets from LFC Twitter. All those doubters who don’t want him in the team, let alone as captain. And he plays like THAT. In a game like THIS. If you still can’t see his worth then you never will. Yes, Van Dijk is the most suitable captain candidate at the club all things being equal, but taking it off Hendo would be fucking criminal. It doesn’t matter who has the armband wen you've got as many leaders as we do now. Jordan Henderson - captain, leader, legend. Ok, I’m getting a little caught up in the moment here but I'm just so happy for him. And then there was Suarez, who couldn’t get off the field quickly enough. Something upset him on the way off but the camera didn’t pick up what it was. One report I read claimed it was Sturridge just letting out a huge roar as Suarez went past. I really hope that’s true. I’d like it even more if was something Robbo had said though. He’s a complex character though isn’t he? Before the game he genuinely thought he’d be applauded because of all that he did for us. On the surface, it wasn’t an unreasonable assumption, or at least it wouldn’t have been if he hadn’t acted like such a twat last week (and I don’t mean the goal celebration) and then again this week. He was rolling around and constantly calling for the referee to book our lads. That’s how he plays and he did the same for us, and he said exactly that in his pre-match interview with BT (“I fight everybody, and when I was at Liverpool I fought everybody too”). His attitude is that he’ll do anything to win and that won’t change because he’s at Anfield. Fair enough. He’s a Barcelona player and his time at Liverpool wasn’t going to influence how he approached the game. So why should it influence how the fans approached it? Any player who acted the way he did would have incurred the wrath of the crowd, so no special dispensation is going to be given to him because he was once a great player for us. He was booed as he prepared to take the opening kick off but that’s normal. Whoever was taking it would have had the same treatment as the opening exchanges in these games are always like this, with loud booing any time the other team has the ball. The longer the first half went though the more Suarez incurred the wrath of the crowd with his typical Suarez shenanigans. When he backed into Van Dijk and then hurled himself to the floor before turning to the referee and demanding a yellow card, that was the final straw for most people. The general jeering and whistling when any player - not just Suarez - had the ball, morphed into "cheat cheat cheat" and then repeated chants of “Fuck off Suarez”. It peaked when he was stood in front of the Kop during a break in play, and I’m fairly sure it got to him as he will clearly have heard it. At one point he apparently made a hand gesture behind his back (flicking the v’s?) to the Kop as he made his way up the field. Maybe the message hit home because I thought he toned down the shithousery in the second half, although it may just have been a result of the ball hardly ever coming anywhere near him as we were so much on top. I bet he was hurt by it though, especially as his wife and kids were there watching. Tough shit. It wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t acted the way he did. What he did to Robbo was genuinely next level stuff though. Shit, I’m not even mad, I’m impressed. You’ve almost got to admire the absolute snidery of that (is snidery a word? It is now). Managing to take out an opponent by kicking back at them while you’re running? Dastardly bastard. I can laugh about it because we won. If we’d lost I might be on the next plane over to Spain to smash his goofy teeth down his throat with that stupid fucking flask thing he’s always carrying around. Now I just think it’s funny, unless of course Robbo is missing for any length of time, in which case I might just have to book that flight. I’m genuinely intrigued by how that happens though. Does he practice it? Was it instinctive? Has he done it before? He must have, I suppose. I bet Robbo didn’t even know it was deliberate until he saw it afterwards. Suarez even went over to check if he was ok. As I say, that’s next level shithousing that. Him and Robbo were going at it last week too and reportedly had to be separated in the tunnel. Apparently Robbo was calling him a fat bastard. Just when you think it isn’t possible to love that lad any more he goes and does something like that. The thing with Suarez though is this kind of thing isn’t personal for him. It’s all part of the game. He probably admires and respects Robbo for the way he went back at him. Maybe when he was checking on him to see if he was ok, he actually meant it. It wouldn’t surprise me. Suarez would do that to his own Granny just to get an edge, but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t love her. I’d be interested to know what he said to our lads afterwards. I did see that during the post match interviews on LFC afterwards he interrupted both Van Dijk and Shaqiri to shake their hands and say “congratulations”. That’s him though, he’s an absolute fucking bastard on the pitch but a completely different guy when it’s all over. What we see as shithousery, to him is just how the game is played. Anything to get an edge. It’s why I loved him. Once. I don’t love him anymore, but I don’t hate him either. I did last week but now it’s over and we won, I bear him no ill will. Same with Coutinho. I almost feel sorry for him actually. Almost. I don’t like the way he left but I understand that it was always his dream to play for them. It’s turning into a nightmare though and there must be a part of him that wishes he’d stayed. If he had we probably wouldn’t have Alisson and Fabinho. I wouldn’t swap them for Coutinho, but I would still have him back at a discount price if it’s in any way possible. I understand why not everyone feels that way but we need another match winner and I’d happily welcome him back if the deal was right. With Moreno leaving the Brazilian's need another playmate. Back to Suarez taking out Robbo though. Nobody in the ground will have even known about that, least of all the officials. I don’t expect anyone to see that in real time and realise what happened, but you do have to wonder what the point of VAR is though. In the last World Cup he’d have probably been sent off for that as they were going to replays for every little thing. Now they aren’t even checking for penalty incidents. At least not when it’s us anyway. Mané should have had a pen last week but didn’t get it. He had another decent shout early in this game, but I don’t think they even looked at it. They did, however, look at ‘a potential red card’ after our second goal, related to Gini trying to wrestle the ball away from the keeper and get the game restarted. I’ve watched it from a few different angles and there’s an accidental clash of heads, but there was nothing in it really. They also looked at a tackle by Fabinho (or it may have been Hendo, I can’t remember) to see if that should have been a red. Yet there was nothing when Virgil was manhandled as he tried to get on the end of a corner. I don’t have a clue how it’s supposed to work, as it seems completely random. The referee was hopeless in the first half and was falling for all their antics, particularly those of Suarez. After the break he seemed to get wise to it and was much better. He had a big grin on his face when Klopp went to see him at the final whistle too. I think he was just pleased to be part of such an incredible occasion. Not the best ref we’ve ever had but nowhere near the worst either. Give me him over most of the turds we get in the Premier League anyway. As for the star man, it genuinely could have been any one of nine. Ten if you include Robbo. In my player ratings for ESPN I took the unprecedented step of handing out 10’s all over the place. Only Robbo and Shaq got less and in hindsight I should have given Robbo more than a nine as it’s not his fault he only played one half. Shaq only played one half too, albeit in different circumstances. He was well off the pace in the opening 45 and he put us under pressure a few times with his sloppiness in possession. It’s understandable though really. He hadn’t started a game for three months and now suddenly he’s thrown into a game like this? He was much better in the second half and he put in one hell of a shift without the ball. He also set up Gini’s second. Overall he was good, while everyone else was great. Just incredible to a man. Origi has scored four of the most important goals of the season and three of them will be remembered for decades to come. Hell, if things go our way this weekend then the Newcastle goal will be up there too. His impact has been as unlikely as it is incredible. It’s mad to think where he was going into the season. Not wanted, couldn’t even get on the bench, but look at him now. It’s to his eternal credit that he’s in this position because he got there through working his arse off in training and earning his shot by contributing any time he got any minutes on the pitch. There’s clearly a drop off in quality between the first choice front three and Divock, but the lad has delivered for us spectacularly. When we’ve most needed him he’s nipped into the phone box and put on his Superman costume and saved the day. These two goals earned him a place in Anfield folklore whatever his future holds. Mané didn’t score but it would be wrong to forget about his contribution, which was immense. No goals or assists, but he ran the Barca defence ragged all night. They’ll be having nightmares about him. The constant trouble he was giving them all goes towards the general sense of unease and panic that we saw from them. I thought he was sensational. Rio Ferdinand was raving about him both before and after, and said that out of him, Mo and Bobby, Sadio is the one he’d least like to face. He’s no longer in their shadow, that’s for sure. At the back, Trent was incredible at both ends of the pitch. He’s almost too good to be a right back as it sort of feels like a waste of his talent, but then this team relies so much on creativity from the full back positions maybe this is where he needs to be. Full backs are more important in this team than they are in most others, that’s for sure. Robbo on the other side was phenomenal until he had to go off, and then Milner just took the reigns and carried on where he left off. Let me say here and now that James Milner is a fucking hero. He’s everything I want in a footballer and in a human being. He deserves to be classed as a Liverpool legend and if he is part of a team that wins a European Cup (and who knows, maybe a title) he will be. He’s been a huge part of what this team has done over the last couple of years. In the middle, Virgil showed again why he’s the best defender in the world. There are some who would say that honour belongs to Gerard Pique. I pity those people. Those people are idiots. Virgil completely dominated this game and on the rare occasions Barca threatened he was usually the one cutting out the crosses or attempted through balls. He also brilliantly dispossessed Messi in the box as he attempted to cut back onto his left foot and shoot. It was offside anyway, but no-one knew that at the time. World class. And what about ol’ Big Bird alongside him? Sensational again, just as he was last week. Aside from one tiny lapse in judgement when he tried to play Suarez offside, Matip didn’t put a big foot wrong all night. His form since he got back in the side at the turn of the year has been majestic. It would need to be to keep Gomez out though. Alisson too. Fucking hell. We did so well to restrict them to the handful of chances we did but they could easily have sneaked that away goal had it not been for the big man. The saves weren’t necessarily spectacular, but he was just there, making sure nothing got past him, just being a big imposing bastard. The save from Alba was great. Then there’s the midfield. Hendo was incredible. Even in the closing minutes he was pressing their centre backs on halfway and winning the ball back. He ran and ran and ran, and he was a threat in their penalty area. He made the opener with a surging run into the box and he was still making those runs at the end. At half time he needed tablets and an injection because his knee was giving him hell. What a guy. Made up for him and Milner more than anyone. Gini came on and was unreal. Two goals within ten minutes, and then after that he was taking the piss with some of his footwork. That bit when he had three of them hanging off his back and he just spun away from everyone was unreal. His pressing of the ball and filling spaces was massive too. Clever, beautiful bastard. He said afterwards he was pissed at Klopp for not starting him but he wasted no time in showing why he felt he shouldn’t have been left on the bench. We’ve got…. *counts on fingers* six midfielders (including Ox) who all deserve to start every game. Only three can though and Klopp generally manages it superbly. Who does he pick in the final though? Fucking hell, I wouldn’t want to be making that call. Naby’s injury makes it easier, but (assuming Robbo is ok and Milner isn’t needed at full back) one of Hendo, Fabinho, Gini and Big Games James is going to be on the bench. Whoever it is will be desperately unlucky. It’s not going to be Fabinho though is it? Fuck me, he’s an absolute monster. He’s not like this in every game, but he doesn’t always need to be. What he did here though was something else. I’d go as far as to say it’s one of the best midfield displays I’ve ever seen. To be able to play like that, against Messi, despite being on a yellow card for 80 minutes almost defies belief. He’s just a tackling machine. He’s like Hamann, Vieira and Mascherano all rolled up into one big boss cynical South American package. The tackle he was booked for was fucking ace. He took the ball and cleaned out Suarez. It was never a booking and he was quick to let Suarez know what he thought. Like Robbo, he was in a running battle with Suarez all night. It was how he dealt with Messi that was most impressive though. You’re never going to stop a player like that from having the odd moment but most of the time that Messi was able to get involved it was because Fabinho wasn’t around. Like second balls from set-pieces for example, when Fabinho has to leave him to do another job. Messi had some dangerous moments then. In open play though he was barely able to get the ball, because Fabinho was always around to make sure it didn’t reach him. And when it did, he was there harassing fuck out of him. Either he’d dispossess him or he’d realise that he couldn’t and he’d pull away and let someone else deal with it. It would have been so easy for him to dive in, or to pull Messi back or even just inadvertently get too close and accidentally clip him. That never happened though because Fabinho’s game management was off the fucking charts. And look at him deep in stoppage time, winning the ball and powering past three players before being brought down by Messi. Unbelievable. He’s my star man. He even yelled at the ref and gestured towards Messi as if to say “are you not gonna book this little prick?”. I loved it. Almost as much as I loved him giving Suarez the hairdryer in the first half. Give them back what they gave us. Last week they were all cock a hoop after stealing a 3-0 win despite being outplayed. So much snide, arrogance and cockiness. I wrote recently that ‘cheats always prosper’. I was wrong. Not always, just most of the time. Sometimes they get what’s coming to them. This was one of those times. All that shithousing from them last week came home to roost in a big way. I’d imagine that there will have been several conversations between the lads about some of the shit that went down last week and how payback was due. You could see the aggression in them and the desire to just get stuck right into them. The physicality was just too much for Barca. The speed, intensity and desire of our lads just ground them into the dust and the noise inside the stadium shook them to their core. I’m not the kind of guy to say I told you so, but this is EXACTLY why I’ve wanted to play them for so long. This is just what I anticipated we’d do to them. Last week was the same, only for the freakish scoreline. Bottom line is that a team that plays like Barcelona just isn’t equipped to cope with a team that plays like us. That’s why I wanted to play them, and why it’s a damn shame we didn’t get another crack at Real Madrid because we’d have fucking smashed them too. Maybe next year. Now it’s just a case of seeing it through and winning the final. What happened last year should help us, and besides, Dejan said on LFC TV last night “don’t worry, we’ll win”. That’s that then, that’s me convinced. Of course there’s the small matter of our final league game before that. Legs will be weary but Tuesday / Sunday is usually fine so we should be recovered in time, injuries notwithstanding. We just need to win that game and see how the cards fall. I have no expectation for Brighton to do anything and I’ve made my peace with that, especially after we managed to salvage our season with this result. Maybe this will have an effect on City? Will they start to think that we’re a team of destiny? You never know, if they were to fall behind or suffer some kind of misfortunate, it might play on their minds, but for now I’m not even going to waste time thinking about it. Just bask in the glow of this, the greatest performance in the history of this great football club, by what, in my opinion at least, is the greatest team we’ve ever had. If they can go and collect Big Ears in a few weeks I don’t even think that’s a debate, but each to their own. That’s me finished anyway, I’m off for a lie down and then another watch of all the post match celebrations and interviews. Can’t wait for the ‘Inside Anfield’ tunnel footage. Just a shame there wasn’t an ‘Inside Camp Nou’ one last week, as I’d give anything to see that exchange between Suarez and Robbo. From the abject despair of Monday night, to this 24 hours later. What a time to be alive. Up the Reds!! Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson (Wijnaldum); Fabinho, Milner, Henderson; Shaqiri (Sturridge), Origi (Gomez), Mané: