Football matters

Wednesday, 8th May

It's the morning after the night before and I'm still buzzing!

The amazing performance by Liverpool against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final still has me excited - and I'm a lifelong Leeds United fan.  To overturn the three goal deficit from the first leg was highly improbable, especially given Mo Salah & Roberto Firmino were both unfit to play.

Maybe, I shouldn't have been surprised as Barcelona are quite suspect defensively and Liverpool did waste some excellent opportunities in the Nou Camp.  In hindsight, the turning point of the tie probably came in the 1st leg when Messi set up Dembele with a glorious chance to put Barca 4-0 ahead as the game was in stoppage time.  He missed it - and Messi knew that it might come back to haunt them.

Still, it was an awesome task that faced Liverpool, as they knew that if they conceded just one more goal they would have to score five .  Huge credit must go to Jurgen Klopp for preparing and motivating his team to outplay Barcelona for most of the 90 minutes.  There were a couple of hairy moments in the first half but overall they contained the threat of Messi, while Suarez & Coutinho failed to make any impact on their return to Anfield. 

It's hard to single out any Liverpool player as it was such a great team performance, but I suppose special mention should go to Trent Alexander-Arnold for his intelligence in setting up the winning goal.  His quick thinking to spot a weakness in the Barca defence and the accuracy of his pass to Origi won the game for Liverpool.

The spine tingling celebration after the game was what reminds me of why I love football so much.

How fitting it will be if Liverpool can go on and win the Champions League - they certainly deserve some silverware for the fantastic football they have  served up this season.