Reds v Roma: CL top scorers meet the comeback kings
The Champions League's most prolific team meet the tournament's comeback kings as Liverpool tackle AS Roma in the semi-finals – starting on Tuesday evening.
Jürgen Klopp’s Reds have, to date, swept aside all before them, racking up 33 goals in the competition proper and eliminating one of the big favourites, Manchester City, with an emphatic 5-1 aggregate triumph in the previous round.
Roma’s journey to the last four has been more dramatic, not least the manner in which they progressed to this point. A sensational 3-0 win against FC Barcelona at Stadio Olimpico earlier this month sent the Italians through on away goals.
Here is the sides’ Champions League story so far…
Free-scoring Reds return to grand stage
Liverpool are in the semi-final mix of Europe’s elite club competition for the first time in a decade – and have achieved that feat on merit.
Including the qualifying play-off against Hoffenheim back in August, Klopp’s men have navigated 12 matches without defeat on their return to the Champions League this season, winning eight.
Sevilla survived the Reds’ trademark attacking onslaught on two occasions during the group stage, claiming draws at Anfield and in Spain, but top spot in the section was secured and attention gained with 7-0 victories against both NK Maribor and Spartak Moscow.
FC Porto provided the opposition at the outset of the knockout rounds but a tie that threatened to be tricky for Liverpool was ended as a genuine contest in the opening meeting in Portugal.
A Sadio Mane hat-trick punctuated a resounding 5-0 victory at Estadio do Dragao that caught the eyes of the continent and rendered the goalless draw in the return on Merseyside immaterial.
Watch: LFC's 39 Champions League goals so far
The quarter-final draw set up an all-English showdown with runaway Premier League leaders City.
If the odds were against them for perhaps the first time in the tournament, nobody told Klopp’s charges. A trademark, first-half blitz at Anfield shook Pep Guardiola’s side and established a 3-0 advantage to take to Manchester.
There, the hosts chipped away at their deficit within two minutes. But they failed to add to Gabriel Jesus’ opener and, instead, Mohamed Salah’s deft dink early in the second half closed down the comeback. Roberto Firmino’s winner on the night merely added memorable gloss.
And so Liverpool prepare to face Roma with an unblemished Champions League record and the attacking combination of Firmino, Sadio Mane and Salah striking fear into any defence.
Roma the revivalists build on home foundations
Roma’s 2017-18 European adventure began inauspiciously, with their goalless draw at home to Atletico Madrid – finalists in 2014 and 2016 – nevertheless a creditable result.
A 2-1 victory over Qarabag preceded the pivotal double-header with Chelsea which perhaps set the tone for everything that has followed.
Having trailed by two at Stamford Bridge, Eusebio Di Francesco’s charges turned the game around to lead. The Premier League side levelled on that night but there was to be no reprieve in the Eternal City a fortnight later – three goals without reply racked up Roma’s most eye-catching result in the tournament until earlier this month.
Defeat on the road to Atletico did not derail the Italians, who wrapped up top spot in Group C.
Where Liverpool’s last-16 encounter was lop-sided, Roma’s was anything but. A 2-1 reversal at Shakhtar Donetsk left them with work to do – but they achieved the required objective in the return leg, Edin Dzeko netting the crucial only goal.
Like the Reds, the quarter-final draw did the Serie A outfit little favours and few impartial observers would have predicted anything but a Barcelona ticket to the semi-finals.
A 4-1 defeat at Camp Nou only consolidated that opinion. But a tale worthy of myths and legends was about to be told at the Olimpico. A tactical switch helped to tip the tie upside down and strikes from Dzeko, Daniele De Rossi and Kostas Manolas saw off Lionel Messi and co.
“Football is dynamic,” Di Francesco explained to The Guardian. “Even when you talk about a four-man defence, you often end up defending as a three, or even a two, depending on the game situation.
“My decision to change the system was linked to the fact that with some teams, with the characteristics of certain players, a three-man defence can give you a little bit of extra physicality. You get a little bit of extra strength – some of that just in the heads of the players themselves. Sometimes, especially in Europe, you need a little bit more physicality.”
Next stop, Anfield.