As has been the case a few times this season, Liverpool were so close to attaining football perfection and then threw it away rather late in the piece. Five-nil up after 68 minutes in a Champions League semi-final….does it get any better than that? We were certainly close to sporting Valhalla thanks to braces from Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino and a single from Sadio Mane.
There was a worrying prescience to this column – rare indeed! – when we previewed the West Brom match last time out. We suspected that the Baggies, a proverbial footballing ‘wounded animal’, would put in a good performance on home soil in front of a largely disillusioned crowd.
It is, undeniably, a distraction. On Tuesday we take on Roma in the first leg of our Champions League semi-final, and everyone associated with the club – from the players and fans to the manager and his coaching staff – would be telling a fib if they said that wasn’t on their mind.
In hindsight, the Champions League tie against Manchester City could not have gone any better. Be under no illusions, we were full value for the 5-1 aggregate lead against the best team in the land; a source of frustration for many Reds fans who are aware of just how good we are on our day.
So here we are then: the game that will ultimately define our season. Has the hard work been done? Yes, the foundations are laid, but there is still plenty of work to be done.
A Merseyside derby, sandwiched in-between the two legs of our Champions League quarter final with Manchester City, all preceded by a game against Crystal Palace which looks far easier on paper than it is in reality.
When he was quizzed on whether his side deserved their 2-1 win over Liverpool last week, Jose Mourinho’s response ranged from the defensive to the downright maniacal.
It is not a game that will live long in the memory of anyone who witnessed it, but Liverpool’s 0-0 draw with Porto on Tuesday was significant in that nothing went wrong. Nobody played abysmally, and nobody got injured. Ahead of Saturday’s trip to Old Trafford, we couldn’t wish for more.
Jurgen Klopp is a consummate professional, and so his post-match interviews are conducted with a stony-faced stoicism throughout, but even he would have been delighted with the 5-0 win over Porto in the first leg of this Champions League last 16 tie.
A change is as good as a rest, so the old saying goes, yet a more accurate mantra in football might be ‘a rest with no change is just as good.’ Liverpool’s early exit from the FA Cup had given them an extended break ahead of last Saturday’s clash with West Ham, and that was evident in the energy and vitality the Reds’ players showed from the first whistle to the last.