Mo Salah leads Liverpool onslaught to leave Roma needing new miracle

Of all the mesmerising nights Liverpool have experienced under Anfield’s floodlights in European competition, where does this one stand? Up there, surely, with Saint-Étienne in 1977, the take-a-bow goal from Steven Gerrard against Olympiakos in 2005 and the fightback against Borussia Dortmund in 2016. Liverpool have put themselves in command and, barring an almost implausible feat of escapology, can start looking forward to the final in Ukraine on 26 May.

The only possibly note of caution could be that Roma have already overcome a 4-1 first-leg deficit in the Stadio Olimpico against Barcelona in the quarter-finals. On that basis, Jürgen Klopp will be dismayed by his team’s carelessness when they had a 5-0 lead. Perhaps the manager made a mistake of his own by withdrawing Mohamed Salah, who had scored two and set up another couple. Roma promptly scored twice and, somehow, Liverpool managed to combined scoring five times with a nervous climax to an extraordinary night.

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