Liverpool on Tuesday produced one of the most stunning comebacks in UEFA Champions League history to beat Barcelona 4-0 and progress to the final for the second consecutive year as stand-in striker Divock Origi and substitute Georginio Wijnaldum each scored two goals.
Liverpool went into the match at Anfield trailing 3-0 from the first leg and deprived of injured star attackers Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.
However, Origi — making a rare start — and substitute Wijnaldum each netted twice as Barca for the second consecutive season surrendered a three-goal first-leg lead to exit the Champions League.
Photo: Reuters
“With any other team I wouldn’t think it was possible. They are really mentality giants,” Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said. “It is unbelievable the season we had, the games we had, the injuries we had now.”
“Going out there and putting in a performance like this on the pitch is unbelievable. I am really proud to be the manager of this team,” he said. “What they did tonight was really special. I will remember it forever.”
Liverpool are to face either Dutch side Ajax or Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the final on June 1 in Madrid and are likely to be favorites to be crowned European champions for the sixth time.
The Reds’ stunning victory brought back memories of when they last lifted the trophy in 2005, when they overturned a 3-0 halftime deficit in the final against AC Milan in Istanbul, Turkey.
However, Klopp underlined the importance of his side writing their own history, even if their bid for a first Premier League title in 29 years falls short behind Manchester City this weekend.
“We believed in this chance, we didn’t compare it with Istanbul or whatever,” Klopp said. “We want to create our own history. We need new chapters, obviously, and the boys did it.”
Despite the despondency of losing Salah and Firmino, Klopp’s men never lost faith and were accompanied by a typically raucous Anfield atmosphere for a European night.
Origi would almost certainly not have started had Salah and Firmino been fit to play.
However, the 24-year-old Belgian has made a habit of scoring important goals in Liverpool’s title challenge and had his first-ever goal in the Champions League on seven minutes on the rebound after Marc-Andre ter Stegen had denied Jordan Henderson’s initial effort.
“We know this club is the mix of atmosphere, emotion, desire and football quality. You cut off one and it doesn’t work, we know that,” Klopp said.
“This club has a big heart. The heart was pounding like crazy, you could hear it and feel it all over the world. I am so happy we could give the people this experience,” he added.
Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde was left to face up to the second major European embarrassment of his time in charge.
The Spanish champions last year blew a 4-1 first-leg lead to bow out in the quarter-finals against AS Roma.
“The most hurtful thing is to repeat it,” said Valverde, who might struggle to hold on to his job, despite guiding Barca to two La Liga titles.
“When you have a collapse of this nature we will have a few horrible days ahead,” he added.
Barca were left to rue not taking their chances in the first half after weathering Liverpool’s early burst.
Lionel Messi had seemingly turned the tie in the Catalans’ favor late in the first leg with a brilliant free-kick and his first effort was tipped over by Alisson Becker before the Brazilian denied his international teammate Philippe Coutinho.
Liverpool were seemingly dealt another injury blow as Andy Robertson was withdrawn at halftime, but he made way for Wijnaldum, with James Milner moving to leftback.
Wijnaldum’s impact was massive. He was picked out by Trent Alexander-Arnold’s low cross and drilled under Ter Stegen.
In Liverpool’s next attack, Xherdan Shaqiri picked out Wijnaldum to head home.
“Once again we showed that everything is possible in football,” Wijnaldum said. “I was really angry at the manager that he put me on the bench, but I had to do something to help the team when I came on.”
Valverde tried to restore some order as Coutinho, who cost £142 million (US$185.3 million) in moving from Liverpool to Barcelona in January last year, was replaced for the second time in the tie.
The change briefly had an impact, but Barca were inexplicably caught cold from a quick Alexander-Arnold corner 11 minutes from time that picked out Origi completely unmarked to fire high past Ter Stegen.
“A genius moment,” Klopp said of Alexander-Arnold’s quick thinking. “I saw the ball flying in the net and had no idea who took the corner and who scored the goal.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier