This year’s UEFA Champions League has had some zany results in the knockout round, including Tottenham Hotspur advancing against Manchester City in the quarterfinals after a controversial review nullified a goal. But Tuesday’s semifinal second leg was perhaps even weirder, with Liverpool (who lost 3-0 on the road to Barcelona in the first leg last week, and seemed to be all but out of it) coming up with a 4-0 home victory to win 4-3 on aggregate and advance to the final. And that decisive fourth goal (Barcelona would have advanced on away goals otherwise) came thanks to some confusion from Barcelona’s defenders, and to a 79th-minute corner Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold took suddenly after previously walking away from the ball, setting up Divock Origi’s second goal of the match:
https://twitter.com/reagantrevor3/status/1125864796509888512
Origi previously scored off a rebound in the seventh minute, and Georginio Wijnaldum added further goals in the 54th and 56th minute after coming on as a halftime substitute. Meanwhile, Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson made several key saves to preserve the clean sheet. But it was this corner that really turned the tide, and Barcelona wasn’t able to come back from that. And this tweet of theirs from after Liverpool’s first goal now looks pretty silly:
We score, Liverpool need FIVE – and we're going to get at least one… agreed?
🔵🔴 #LFCBarça (1-0, agg 1-3) pic.twitter.com/MX2fCNPynn— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) May 7, 2019
Also, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp had a fun press conference after this:
https://twitter.com/futbolbible/status/1125874009185275904?s=21
Liverpool will now go on to the June 1 final, where they’ll face either Ajax or Tottenham Hotspur; Ajax hosts that second leg Wednesday, and leads 1-0 after the first leg in London.
[ESPN, video from Reagan Trevor, photo from Liverpool FC on Twitter]
