Leading 5-0. That's a b***ard isn't it?
Loads talking about the Salah sub but that's over egging that moment to be honest. 5-0 and the whole crowd, everyone in red, even us at home, thought 'job done' and with the atmosphere being drained out after that fifth it just made the environment seem a little more benign, which given the extremities of hell Roma were in was probably like walking into Paradise. That fifth goal brought Anfield back from pandemonium to a holiday resort almost instantly. That was a bigger factor in allowing them to score 2 than the removal of Salah even though his benching did make us lose focus in attack.
BUT, the level of exploitation by Liverpool on Roma between 30 and 70 minutes was astonishing and something I never expected to see at this stage. Between that period we were ruthless, Roma useless. Roma were beaten similarly by Barcelona in the first leg of the quarters but everyone would have said just how unjust that scoreline was on Roma. Roma were unlucky to find themselves at 4-1 away to Barca. By contrast today, Roma were VERY lucky to find themselves just 5-0 down by 70 minutes. We've clearly got the space and quick movement to make something and a bit more behind their lines in Rome.
As for that first 30 minutes I can only think the extent of the rain really disrupted us. AOO's injury had me fearing the worst for the match - it's always a shellshock to fans to see one of your own be carried off on a stretcher and I seriously worried from that point on whether Roma would just twist the knife and kill the atmosphere and our game completely. But, I think, as the rain got less heavy we got a bit more steady on our feet and that beautiful touch and movement from Bobby and Mane (which ended in Mane blazing over) lit the blue touch paper. It was magnificent, for 40 minutes of that match, to see it all rain down in goals from that point on. But the last 10-15 minutes was a keen reminder that there is still naivety about this team and actually when Roma get it together they are a real bloody potent threat (as Karius almost found out to his embarrassment in that first half hour).
Anyhow - we're in this and we've put ourselves in a fantastic position regardless of the disappointment at the end. It's always that hindsight/circumstances dilemma. If you'd given me 5-2 before the start I'd have snapped your hand off. At 5-0 up though? Of course not. But, given that we had two perfect first legs against City and Porto beforehand, I suppose we were due something to mull over going into another second leg.
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