Liverpool Does The Unthinkable
With a depleted roster and the odds against them, yesterday Liverpool shocked the soccer world and advanced to the Champions League finals.
After a crushing 3–0 first leg defeat, all hope for Liverpool to advance through the Champions League semi-finals looked to be lost. The Reds were facing an uphill battle against one of the worlds best teams, and to overcome that they would have to do the unthinkable- score four goals and shut out one of Europe’s most potent offenses without two of their top players.
Liverpool’s star striker and winger, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah, were both unavailable for the game due to injuries. This left many to believe that the bench players who had to fill in, Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri, would not be able to provide the offence needed to win the game and advance through to the finals. Many would be proven wrong.
Within minutes of the match beginning, Origi caught the Barcelona defense on its heels and scored. Then after an injury to left-back Andy Robertson, the Reds were forced to make a substitution, and what a powerful substitution it was. Gini Wijnaldum came onto the pitch and immediately made an impact, scoring 2 goals in 2 minutes to give the Reds a commanding 3–0 lead, and tie the aggregate score at three a piece.
This was the momentum Liverpool needed, as it re-energized a side that was fighting for survival and crushed their opponents’ spirits. Then after another nerve wracking scoreless 20 minutes for both sides, Liverpool struck again. Trent Alexander-Arnold took a quick corner kick that led to a second Origi goal that would prove to be what they needed to advance to the finals.
For the second year in a row, Liverpool will be going to Champions League finals. Their opponents in that game will be their fellow Premier League club, the Tottenham Hotspurs. Both teams will be looking to keep the momentum going, as they both came back from a first leg deficit to advance to the finals on June 1st.
