Liverpool beat Roma 7-6 on aggregate to reach the Champions League semi-final, and the British Press reacts to last night’s 4-2 loss at the Olimpico.
“The Champions League has never known anything like this,” writes Barney Ronay in the Guardian.
“A 4-2 victory for Roma brought to an end a double-header that has seen 20 goals scored in two semi-finals, capped by a pair of hysterically open second legs. Defending is over. Clean sheets are over.”
Liverpool beat Roma 7-6 on aggregate to reach the Champions League semi-final, and the British Press reacts to last night’s 4-2 loss at the Olimpico.
“The Champions League has never known anything like this,” writes Barney Ronay in the Guardian.
“A 4-2 victory for Roma brought to an end a double-header that has seen 20 goals scored in two semi-finals, capped by a pair of hysterically open second legs. Defending is over. Clean sheets are over.”
In the same newspaper, the match report did note “[Edin] Dzeko, wrongly flagged offside, should also have been awarded a penalty two minutes earlier when he went down under Karius’s challenge and Liverpool got away with another one when Trent Alexander-Arnold used his hand to block El Shaarawy’s shot”.
Henry Winter in The Times writes of “a mad tie, finishing with a tennis tie-break of a score, 7-6, a semi-final to give defensive coaches sleepless nights” also pointing out “Liverpool were lucky last night when two penalty decisions went in their favour”.
The Daily Mail states that Jurgen Klopp’s side “rode their luck, more than a little. They could have had their goalkeeper sent off. They could have conceded two more penalties. They could have been hanging on for dear life, come the end, or worse.”
Overall tough the German’s gung-ho approach was praised, with his side “never less than two goals up on aggregate throughout this second leg, except in injury time”.
The Independent writes “this 4-2 defeat to a highly-flawed Roma – to make it 7-6 on aggregate – highlighted as many of Liverpool’s own concerning flaws as their mesmeric strengths”, stating that the Giallrossi backline “can only really be called a ‘defence’ in name”.
Scotland’s Daily Record felt “Liverpool's progress to the final was rarely in doubt because of their brilliant attack, who ripped the Italians apart”.