Liverpool in the Champions League Final

After a thrilling first leg in the Champions League semi-finals, Liverpool managed to get the job done, losing 4-2 on the night but winning 7-6 on aggregate.

Roma was out for blood from the first-minute of the game but a mistake by Radja Nainggolan resulted in a lethal counter-attack with Roberto Firmino giving a through ball to Sadio Mane to score with ease.

However, an unlucky own goal was conceded by James Milner after the ball deflected his face when Dejan Lovern tried to clear it out of Liverpool’s penalty box.

Liverpool responded by controlling more of the ball which resulted in the first away goal by Georginio Wijnaldum.

The first half ended with Roma not registering a single shot on target but it was game-on in the second half.

Liverpool were lucky when Edin Dzeko was wrongly ruled offside and was fouled by Liverpool’s goalkeeper, Loris Karius which could have resulted in a penalty and a possible red card.

Edin Dzeko scored after defensive errors by the right back Trent Alexander Arnold and Karius; Dzeko scored a rebound from Stephan El Shaarawy’s shot.

The problem was Trent did not have the protection from Mohammed Salah because he did not track back, so Trent was exposed to El Shaarawy’s speed.

For some reason, Salah was as playing in the striker position just wavering upfield instead of playing on the wing where he can fully utilise his speed.

Nonetheless, Karius should have done better with the initial shot from El Shaarawy but pushed the ball straight into the path of Dzeko.

At the 62^nd minute, Nainggolan crossed the ball into the box and after a few touches and a poor clearance by Trent, El Shaarawy took a shot but it hit off Trent’s hand while he was blocking, which should have been a clear penalty if the referee saw it.

Once again, at the 81^st minute, Trent was almost caught by a long ball over his head which landed to Dzeko but failed to capitalise on it.

However, even though Nainggolan scored a world-class goal and conceding a penalty that should not have been given in the last minute of the game, Liverpool managed to survive and qualify into the final of the Champions League.

The next game is Real Madrid, who is favourite to retain the trophy, but Liverpool is experiencing many injuries in the midfield.

Trent has a lot of potential, but he is still young which like Roma, Real Madrid will exploit especially with the form of Real Madrid’s left-back Marcelo and a possible starting return by Gareth Bale, therefore, Jurgen Klopp needs to address the issue of protecting Liverpool’s left flank without exposing the midfield.

90 minutes of football, Real Madrid versus Liverpool, this will be one of the most anticipated finals in years at least from a Liverpool fan.