In the end he was left to perform for the Doping Control Officer. And the sad, silent song of Lionel Messi’s stream, deep in the bowels of an Anfield that had threatened to rupture, made the hour twice as long as he waited for the sun to go sinking.
What’s it like in the locker room after you pull off one of the greatest comeback wins in the history of a storied club? Thanks to the club’s media team, we have behind-the-scenes footage of the Liverpool locker room after beating Barcelona on Tuesday night.
Coming into a game with the impossible on its to-do list, Liverpool down three goals on aggregate returned home and dominated Barcelona 4-0 to return to its second consecutive Champions League final with a 4-3 aggregate victory on Tuesday at Anfield.
Just six days ago, this Barcelona team was on the other side of the beating, thrashing Liverpool 3-0 in Barca.
With Mohamed Salah ruled out of Tuesday’s Liverpool-Barcelona Champions League semifinal second leg with a concussion, maybe Jordi Alba thought he was in for a beautiful stroll across the lovely confines of Anfield. Maybe, looking across at replacement Xherdan Shaqiri, he thought, “Hell yeah, I might be marginally taller than this dude.”
Or perhaps he thought he’d simply feed it to Lionel Messi (as has been the case on three occasions in LaLiga and twice in the UCL this season) and let him do the rest.
All Barcelona had to do was get one. One away goal and it would all be over for Liverpool. One simple goal from the team with the greatest goal scorer of this era, perhaps of all time.
But Alisson wouldn’t let it happen.
What a difference a goalkeeper makes.
Last year, Liverpool’s Champions League run was ended by poor goalkeeping, Loris Karius undoing all the good work done by Jurgen Klopp’s side against Real Madrid.
Everything and everyone contrived against Vincent Kompany scoring the winner with a 30-yard bomb against Leicester City on Monday night. First off, the man’s own muscles, which have contrived to deprive him of less than 20 league starts in each of the last four campaigns. Monday marked his 12th appearance in an EPL starting 11 this term.
Manchester City has regained its slender one point lead in the title race after defeating Leicester City at the Etihad 1-0. The Cityzens were put under pressure as Liverpool narrowly defeated Newcastle 3-2 at St. James’ Park on Saturday. Liverpool now must beat Wolves next weekend to have a chance at the title. Leicester City came to play at the Etihad and did not let the defending champions have it easy on their home ground.
It’s obviously been the wildest of title races, and Monday’s meeting between Manchester City and Leicester City only intensified how preposterously frantic it’s been. The Foxes were oh-so-close to doing Liverpool the ultimate favor, but the 2015-16 champions fell short due to Vincent Kompany’s 30-yard wonder strike in the 70th minute.
Manchester City looked destined to stumble to a 0-0 draw with Leicester City on the penultimate match day to hand control of the Premier League title race back to Liverpool ahead of the final round of games next Sunday. Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers, formerly of Liverpool, set up the 2015-16 champions immaculately, highlighted by dominant performances from center defensive midfielder Wilfred Ndidi and goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.
Last Wednesday, Lionel Messi recorded his 600th goal for Barcelona during his club’s 3-0 Champions League semifinal first leg victory over Liverpool. It was an astonishing free kick, the 42nd of his Barça career, that venomously flew right past Joe Gomez’s face before curling into the top corner from 35 yards out.