Roman valour could not strike twice as Liverpudlian courage saw the Reds through to what is an English record eighth Champions League final.
The Italians came into the second leg as the only side in this year’s competition not to concede a goal at home after denying Chelsea, Qarabag, Atletico Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk and Barcelona.
That said, rarely have they been under as much pressure as they were on Wednesday night when they were trailing 5-2 from the first leg. After the Roma net went untroubled for 450 minutes this season, it took Jurgen Klopp’s men just nine minutes to breach it and virtually put the tie beyond the hosts’ reach.
Firmino, the first of his kind
We may be witnessing a new kind of forward dynamo, the first of his kind in Roberto Firmino. The Brazilian presses, hassles, harries and initiates attacks on his own in the opposition’s half, sharply increasing the number of opportunities this breath-taking Liverpool attack have.
True, Mohamed Salah is the toast of the town and rightly should be for his goal-scoring exploits, but Bobby can do it all and finish it off with a no-look pass. You can’t nap with the Brazilian lurking around and he has an unnatural awareness of defensive fallibility, a ball-winning forward if you may.
It comes as no surprise that the 26-year-old started life off as a defensive midfielder and combines those attributes with the zip and drive of an elite striker. It was Radja Nainggolan who made the crucial mistake against Liverpool, passing it short and Firmino was present, gobbling up the mistake and passing it to Sadio Mane.
The Senegalese forward would get his name on the score sheet but it was the ball magnet Firmino who delivered with his unique knack. Here’s Gini Wijnaldum neatly summing it up:
“He scores goals but he is like an extra defender – he is always making it difficult for players when they have the ball. They never see him coming. He takes the ball from behind.
“When you play against him you always have to be aware that he can be somewhere, you never know where he is. That doesn’t give you a comfortable feeling when you have the ball. And that’s a good thing for us.”
It’s not just the final in Kiev that we should be excited about, but also the big one in Russia in July. Brazil are in superb form going into the World Cup and Firmino must be central to Tite’s plans. Herr Klopp has 27 goals from his advanced defensive forward and the German has struck gold once again.
Klopp project lifts Premier League
As consistent as Manchester City have been, it is Liverpool and Klopp who have raised the bar of the league by becoming the first Premier League club in six years to qualify for the Champions League final.
Of City’s seven defeats this season, three have been inflicted by Liverpool. The biggest gripe about Premier League clubs are that they cannot defend against Barcelona or Real Madrid like an Atletico or a Juventus can.
This team has flipped that logic on its head. A certain relentless in attack may mean the odd adverse result, like the 5-0 at City’s hands in September, but there is a method to the madness with Klopp’s gunslingers sweeping forward like a power outage taking over a city.
Against Roma, they conceded six but were never in real danger of losing the tie after Salah had scored their second in the first leg. Roma were undone by their defending in the first leg and rallied late in both the legs, scoring a cumulative four goals in the last 10 minutes at Anfield and in Rome, but never really troubled Liverpool to put a seed of doubt in Klopp’s mind.
The Klopp project has delivered Liverpool a Champions League final in three years, after having lost Phil Coutinho mid-season but also following the renewal of Firmino’s contract. On this form, you cannot help but argue that Liverpool sold the most dispensable member of their top four for a boatload of cash while retaining their most important one.
With some depth added in the summer and Salah still enjoying the Anfield air, Manchester City should have some heavy sparring to do in the next Premier League campaign. Klopp’s team have changed the game and the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal should be looking at their own balance-sheets and pondering why they didn’t.
Roma restore Italian pride
The Azzuri’s failure to qualify for the World Cup would have stung but Roma have ensured that Italy have surpassed Germany in the Uefa co-efficient list for the upcoming year. Uefa’s revised rules mean that the top four associations will get four spots starting next season, but this is a positive sign, regardless.
The GialloRossi qualified for the final four of Europe’s premier club competition for the first time since 1984 despite being drawn in a group alongside Chelsea and Atletico Madrid. They ended the group as winners and Peter Drury’s words are bound to haunt Barcelona forever.
Overturning a three-goal deficit is a rarity in the Champions League, and to have done it twice in a season would have been a statistical anomaly on Roma’s part. The Champions League has become richer following their run and, hopefully, Ernesto Valverde has too.
In Edin Dzeko, Roma have a striker re-vitalised with seven Champions League goals to his name. As Roma scored four against Liverpool, they delivered against the Reds what they had promised after Barcelona: two stupendous knock-out ties. Four points ahead of fifth-placed Internazionale in Serie A, Champions League qualification is in their hands. With that secured, they, along with Napoli, should challenge Juventus’s hegemony the next season.
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