They may have rode their luck at times, but Liverpool still emerged victorious by losing in the Stadio Olimpico last night, holding on to clinch a maddening 7-6 aggregate win over Roma to go bounding into the Champions League final.
With 62 minutes of the tie played, the Reds were 7-4 up overall but, as anybody who watched the higgledy-piggledy game will know, their safe passage to Kiev was anything but assured.
It was at that very point in the match, with Roma in the ascendancy and things teetering on a knife edge, that Jurgen Klopp’s team swerved what looked like a very strong penalty claim when Trent Alexander-Arnold diverted a Stephan el-Shaarawy shot away from goal with his hand…
Roma were awarded nothing more than a corner kick, leaving their players, staff and fans to gripe about a vast UEFA-led conspiracy being waged against their club.
Monchi says the time has come for Italian football “to speak up.” Follows same line as Agnelli in Madrid. “I don’t get why there is no VAR in Europe’s most important competition.”
— James Horncastle (@JamesHorncastle) May 2, 2018
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk was altogether less het-up about the call (or lack thereof) when pressed by BT Sport directly after the final whistle.
Asked about the two potential penalty claims that went begging for the Giallorossi, the centre-half simply replied:
Who cares?
Now that’s a cool, unflinching reaction Pies would categorise as “extremely Dutch”…
This man pic.twitter.com/njQJHZ91a3
— Lauren (@saintlawren) May 2, 2018
Pies definitely admire the guy’s style, both on the pitch and off.