Jurgen Klopp hailed Liverpool’s ‘giants’ as they produced the greatest comeback in the club’s history to reach their ninth Champions League final.
Anfield has witnessed some extraordinary night in the past but this was on another level as they beat Barcelona 4-0; Divock Origi, who replaced the concussed Mohamed Salah, and substitute Gini Wijnaldum both scored twice to flatten the Catalans.
Few gave Liverpool a hope of overturning the 3-0 first leg deficit but they ran a staggering 122kms compared to Barcelona’s 105km and the second half was a one-way assault on Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s goal. Ernesto Valverde’s side could not withstand the tide that washed over them.
At the final whistle, Liverpool’s players celebrated in front of The Kop and this performance outstripped the matches that made legends in the past, such as St Etienne, Borussia Dortmund, and Chelsea and arguably surpassed the 2005 final against AC Milan in Istanbul.
Klopp said: ‘They are f***ing giants. If you have to fine me, fine me! The whole game was too much. It was overwhelming. We played against maybe the best team in world. Winning is difficult but winning with a clean sheet, I don’t know they did it. It’s unbelievable.’
He added: ‘Winning against Barcelona is one of the most difficult things in the world of football. Winning against Barcelona when you are 3-0 down… we had to score four goals and were not allowed to concede, even more difficult so we did not really think about it.
‘We tried to build on the good performance in Barcelona and win the game step by step. It was a really special game. It was really difficult to play against us, a mix of big heart and football skills that was beautiful. We scored.
‘The thing that made it really possible, because of the mentality of giants we have a chance. If you go out there and ask who… you find a lot of pople and then you go out there and produce a performance like that is unbelievable. What they did tonight is so special.
‘I will remember it forever 100 percent and I don’t know if it will happen again.’
Barcelona were shattered as they left Anfield. They were beaten in the quarter-finals last year, having won their first leg 4-1 against Roma, and the manner of the collapse left head coach Ernesto Valverde speechless.
‘It’s happened again,’ he lamented. ‘It happened last year. It’s true that it has been different games, the first leg and second leg. They started really well and they pinned us back. Early goal, we reacted well after that. We managed to control things a little bit in the second half of the first half.
‘We had half chances to score. I think that we conceded two goals and then they really kind of got on top of us after those two quick concessions. We haven’t managed to get on the scoresheet tonight. They scored two in two and they kind of us rolled us over, really.
‘They have been really strong, they played really well. We’ve got to congratulate them on the performance they put up in the tie as a whole. It is a terrible result for our fans and for ourselves. We didn’t expect a situation like this. This is what has happened to us.
‘It is really, really unfortunate but credit is due to Liverpool.’
