4 moments that define Liverpool's ruthless Champions League run
Liverpool's route to the Champions League final has been both unexpected and thrilling. Here, theScore runs through four moments that define Jurgen Klopp's Reds heading into Saturday's showpiece.
Flattening Hoffenheim
Just like another two-legged play-off between Nice and Napoli, it felt cruel that either Hoffenheim or Liverpool would be denied a place in the Champions League group stages after playing out their own double-header.
The talented young manager Julian Nagelsmann said his side wouldn't be intimidated by Anfield after falling 2-1 at home in the first meeting, but had those words rammed down his throat when Liverpool went 3-0 up on Merseyside in 18 minutes.
"The first couple of minutes were already very challenging," Nagelsmann admitted post-match. "They got a free-kick on the edge of the area, we made two or three poor tackles, the crowd could sense that and really got behind Liverpool and you know that's how atmosphere builds here.
"We were running around like headless chickens. The team showed a bit too emotion and we left too many gaps."
Liverpool's 4-2 second-leg victory not only displayed Anfield's lasting influence over continental clashes - to inspire its team, and to intimidate opponents - but also showed that Klopp's team would rock European rivals with rapid combinations from its three-pronged attack.
Sevilla awakening
Similar to the second tussle with Hoffenheim, Liverpool raced out of the blocks in Andalusia to establish a 3-0 advantage over Sevilla after just half an hour. No team had won at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan in more than a year, but the Philippe Coutinho-inspired Reds were lethal and on their way to claiming that rare feat.
But then it collapsed.
Alberto Moreno first gave away a needless free-kick, leading to a Wissam Ben Yedder header, and then nine minutes the same man was scoring again for Sevilla after Moreno felled him in the box. Sevilla's overdue equaliser was struck three minutes into added time by Guido Pizarro.
"We became a little bit passive, they scored the first one and it was obvious the atmosphere changed immediately. It gave them a big boost," Klopp reflected after the 3-3 draw.
In under three weeks, Andrew Robertson replaced Moreno as the first-choice left-back. Thirty-six days after the collapse, Virgil van Dijk was unveiled as a Liverpool player. Klopp's defence was finally fortified, with the surrender of two group-stage points in Seville perhaps showing just how much it was needed.
Weathering the Manchester City storm
Liverpool was rampant in the first leg against Manchester City, making a statement that reverberated around Europe. Not only did the Reds race into another three-goal lead, but they showed some new-found solidity to swat away City's advances. Surely nobody - not even Pep Guardiola's runaway Premier League leader - could overturn a 3-0 deficit in the reverse fixture.
But City threatened. Gabriel Jesus' goal inside two minutes triggered cautious optimism at the Etihad Stadium, Bernardo Silva cracked the upright with one effort, and Raheem Sterling was a serious threat against his former club for the first time since his 2015 transfer. However, Liverpool was given that bit of luck that every European winner has on a triumphant run - Leroy Sane had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside - and then rediscovered its composure after the break.
Mohamed Salah landed the killer blow with an angled finish on 56 minutes, before Roberto Firmino capitalised on a Nicolas Otamendi error.
A touch of fortune, but in the end Liverpool's more balanced outfit boasted a 5-1 success over the two skirmishes.
Thinking outside the Ox
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was brimming with confidence, barging through midfields, and forging a tough second line of Klopp's press. His injury in the first leg against Roma, then, was seen as a huge loss for England going into the World Cup. But what about Liverpool?
What Oxlade-Chamberlain's injury did was expose how thin Liverpool still is in some areas of the squad. Suddenly Adam Lallana is travelling with Klopp's throng once more despite a disappointing campaign after a long-term spell in the treatment room, and even Trent Alexander-Arnold is being thrust into a more advanced position.
That pair won't be selected as midfielders in Kyiv, though.
Georginio Wijnaldum is an underrated player in the middle of the park - an expert of using his body to retain possession - but he doesn't have the same energy as Oxlade-Chamberlain going forward. A likely replacement for the Ox will be Emre Can, although his injury concerns and flirting with Juventus is well documented. Can's own box-to-box efforts are also rare, but his two-goal display against Hoffenheim back in August is at least within recent memory.
For Liverpool's Ox-less nucleus to win the midfield battle against Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Casemiro, and maybe Isco, it will take a gargantuan effort.
(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)