I am not a supporter of Liverpool Football Club but I do believe it is a special club with a great European pedigree. If any Premier League club was going to overturn a 3-0 first leg defeat against Barcelona, it was going to be Liverpool. They had done it before in that epic Champions League final when they came back from 3-0 down to beat Milan on penalties. Liverpool do play with a 12th player - their fans. They were absolutely fantastic on Tuesday night and manager Juergen Klopp deserves plenty of credit for instilling the belief in his players that they can defeat Barcelona. Having said that, it was a rather poor Barcelona, which is not a shadow of the team which tasted such success with Pep Guardiola. But this should not take any credit away from Liverpool; at the end of the day it was still Barcelona and Messi was playing.
The Spanish media were quick to criticise Barcelona yesterday. Some of the criticism was rather harsh; even the best team in the world has a bad day and they were playing a Liverpool side which even Guardiola says are one of the best in the world. I have seen my own club, Chelsea, being knocked out of European competitions on numerous occasions by Barcelona and in some ways I watched Liverpool with a sense of envy and happiness for their fans. But Liverpool is a special club and it was another very special night for them in Europe. Klopp's men are now in the final and he must break his final jinx to put Liverpool at the top of European football.