Liverpool is a finalist!
Fantastic atmosphere in the Olympic of Rome, stadium that saw all their seats filled with the tifosi who believed in the comeback and received a Liverpool with everything in their favor to be in Ukraine, where the Real Madrid was waiting. The first match ended with a favorable score for the Reds, 5-2, Roma needed to make 3 goals if they wanted to be in the final. The game promised emotions, and it was.
Line-up.
Roma: Alisson; Florenzi, Manolas, Fazio, Kolarov; De Rossi, Pellegrini, Nainggolan; Schick, El Shaarawy y Dzeko. | 4-3-3
Liverpool: Karius; Alexander-Arnols, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Milner, Wijnaldum; Mané, Salah y Firmino. | 4-3-3
First leg.
And the match starts at the Stadio Olimpico Di Roma . La Loba, as expected, goes with everything to the attack hoping to get an early goal that puts them back quickly in the tie, tries for almost 8 minutes with approximations somewhat dangerous but in the end did not cause any damage. Until the first error of the home team arrived, and if something we have learned from these semifinals is that mistakes are paid very expensive and today was no exception. Nainggolan made a mistake in the delivery and gives it to Firmino that drives and enables Mané that sends it to the back of the goal of Alisson with a powerfull shot with his left leg, the first attack from Liverpool and already adds on the scoreboard, Jürgen's team is a LETAL one.
But Roma are a fighting team and they were not going to give up so easily, they saw their push and claw rewarded just 6 minutes later, when at 15' a rejection of Lovren hits Milner's head and ends in his own goal, owngoal from the english who can not believe the bad fortune he had in that play. The Romans were beginning to believe in a possible comeback until 10 minutes later, after a bad rejection of the defense of Roma after a corner, Wijnaldum takes advantage of the bad exit of Alisson to put the 1-2 . The Italians now needed the same score that Liverpool got in Anfield to provoke the extension. The match continues with a high pace just as in the first leg and at 34' Roma almost get the tie with a shot from El Shaarawy that hits the goal post defended by Karius, after a detour in Milner. It would not happen much more in this first time and they go to the rest with advantage for the reds that already could smell the end.
Second leg.
The second half begins practically the same as the first and appears the first controversy of the night: Edin Dzeko receives the ball in the area and is clearly shot down by Karius, but the play is invalidated by the previous NON-EXISTING offside of Bosnian. But there is no harm that does not come well and just 2 minutes later, at 51', Dzeko would have revenge after taking advantage of a rebound of the German goalkeeper product of a poisonous shot from El Shaarawy, and placed it at the back of the net to achieve the partial draw 2-2 . They needed 3 more to force the extension.
And they look for it, first at 59' with a ball cross on the back of the Liverpool's defense that receives Ünder, and it's stop by Karius, 3 minutes later at 62' Dzeko shoots and it's blocks by the defense in extremis, El Shaarawy picks the rebound and the ball clearly hits Arnold's hand. It was a penalty for Roma and possible expulsion for the young English side, since it was a ball aimed at the opposing goal.
After this, 2 ocations for La Loba, first a low center that manages to repel Karius before Schick arrived at the ball and then a volley shot from Dzeko that is sent long away. It is the best moment of Roma in the match but unfortunately for the Italians it is not reflected in the score. The Liverpool immediately after this looks for to react with a Firmino shot asisted by Salah (that until here its contribution is very poor) that stops Alisson with the feet. The minutes pass and the Rome it's keep pushing looking for the heroic and Liverpool who defends himself with everything hoping for a counterattack, the game begins to fade and it seems that this will be the final result, until football does justice and thanks to a great shot from outside the area from Nainggolan puts the match 3-2 in favor of the Romans. The Belgian's spectacular goal that makes amends in the first half and puts his team to only 2 goals of the comeback.
90 minutes arrive and the referee adds 3 more to play (it seems very little) and only 1 minute to the end a penalty kicks in favor of Roma product of a hand of Klavan in the area, which for me had stuck to the body. Shots Nainggolan powerful and placed the 4-2 signing his double of the night. There was one goal missing for another epic comeback in the Olympian, but it was too late. Final whistle and result: Rome 4-2 Liverpool (AG: 6-7) .
Spectacular match that left Roma with only 1 goal from the comeback, but thanks to the great result in the first match by Liverpool managed to get their ticket to the final in Kiev. It will be they eighth final of the team that never walks alone and will seek its 6th conquest of it. My most sincere respect and admiration for Rome that against all odds was one step away from playing the final and congratulations to Liverpool who will face off against Real Madrid in Ukraine this May 26.
Match statistics
Source
To conclude, here are some facts and curiosities of this match:
Salah-Firmino-Mané (10 + 10 + 9 = 29 goals at #UCL 2017-18) beat Cristiano-Bale-Benzema (17 + 6 + 5 = 28 goals at UCL 2013-14) and become in the most goalscorers trio in the same season, in ALL the history of the UEFA Champions League.
Liverpool have matched the record of away goals in a #UCL season (20), established by Real Madrid in the 2013-14 campaign.
This is the second semifinal with the most goals (13) in ALL the history of the European Cup, only behind the Rangers-Eintracht of 1960 in which they saw 16 goals.
All this data was extracted from Mister Chip's Twitter account.