They rode their luck, more than a little. They could have had the goalkeeper sent-off. They could have conceded two more penalties. They could have been hanging on for dear life, come the end, or worse.
Yet Liverpool will play Real Madrid in Kiev on May 26, because they got it right. They knew what they were best at, they knew what they had to do. They didn’t come to Rome in two minds about whether to dig in a steadfastly defend a three-goal lead. Attack is the best form of defence, with this team.
And so Jurgen Klopp, while not being a gung-ho lunatic, sent his players out to hurt Roma as much as Roma sought to hurt them. As a result, Liverpool were never behind on the night until the 86th minute when it was far too late, and never less than a goal up on aggregate throughout this second leg, and even then only in injury time. One might say the tie was never in doubt, were it not for those breaks courtesy of Slovenian referee Damir Skomina.
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