Liverpool summon the spirit of Istanbul to stun Barcelona

ANFIELD, LIVERPOOL — The most impressive thing about Liverpool is that they truly believed. They believe like no others in these parts, and last night they believed that the most unlikely comeback would occur at Anfield until it came true.

They believed that a substitute could come from the bench to score twice in two minutes, with six touches, as Georginio Wijnaldum did in the second half. They believed that Divock Origi, with four goals all season and not one ever in the Champions League, could conjure two more. They believed that Trent Alexander-Arnold would deliver the most ingenious of quick-thinking corners to set Origi up for the decisive fourth.

Everywhere across Liverpool at Christmas time they must seriously believe that Santa Claus still comes down the chimney overnight to put presents under the tree, and he probably does, because he wears Liverpool’s red.

Where to begin on such an astonishing night? The corridor of red that greeted the team coach as it rolled towards Anfield? The pre-match songs well before kick-off? The sheer, harsh sound from the stands constantly clawing at the Barça players’ skin, tugging their shirts, forcing them into mistakes they would otherwise not have made?

Some teams just cannot avoid buckling under the immense weight of Anfield on a big European night and Barcelona cracked.

Lionel Messi, for example, in the 16th minute, on the ball with Barcelona practically four v one, options left and right, delaying that split- second enough for Virgil van Dijk to make the tackle. There is little in this world that can force a Messi mistake, but Anfield can. One Barcelona goal at that point surely killed this game and it should have been then.

But Liverpool believed from the very first minute, as the team attacked and Xherdan Shaqiri’s ball almost reached Jordan Henderson, only for Jordi Alba to reach it toe-end it first. Anfield exploded. They knew.

Then they scored. The early goal, after seven minutes, that they craved. Henderson’s low shot was saved well by Marc-André ter Stegen’s dive but Origi tapped in the rebound. His first Champions League goal. What a time to score it.

The hatred towards Luis Suarez was the most visceral you will ever experience at a football match. Having riled the whole of Liverpool by the way he celebrated scoring Barcelona’s opener in the first leg, he approached this match by sitting in the pre-match press conference and saying he would not celebrate at Anfield and was expecting a warm welcome.

Too late, now. As he stood over the ball waiting to kick-off, the noise was loud and angry, the sound a snarl would make if it made a sound — surely one of the most booed starts to a match in history. It continued every time he touched the ball, joined by the chants of “f**k off” and shouts of “cheat”. Suarez is nothing but the fiercest of competitors when he is on your side, and a cheat when he is on the other.

Early on, Fabinho won the ball but went through Suarez with the force of a bullet train. The locals celebrated as though a goal had gone in, then booed as loudly when the midfielder was booked.

Andy Robertson believed when he ruffled Messi’s hair in the second minute after the Argentinian bundled over following one of his dribbles through the middle. Messi was furious, and waggled a finger at the full-back. Nobody likes having their hair messed up. More fool he who angers the gods. But Robertson knew.

The irony that Suarez, the most hated man in Anfield, forced the substitution that resulted in two second half goals scored in two stunning minutes by the player who came on. Suarez appeared to flick his legs back and kick out at Robertson towards the end of the first half and the full-back, one of Liverpool’s best players this season, made it to the whistle but not onto the pitch after the break. On came Wijnaldum. On came two unlikely goals.

Alexander-Arnold lost the ball on the right, then it won it back straight away with that punishing high press that Jurgen Klopp demands. Liverpool’s right-back drove down the flank then drilled in a cross and Wijnaldum met it first-time to send the ball through Ter Stegen — not the Barcelona goalkeeper’s finest hour.

Then pandemonium. A second goal in two minutes. The tie level. Milner, who had slotted in at left-back for the injured Robertson, crossed and Wijnaldum headed in. Six touches — two of them goals.

They still needed one more. They were suddenly defensive. Nervous. Then genius: Alexander-Arnold went to walk away from taking a corner, but saw Origi free and darted back to fire the ball to him. Origi scored.

It was the result they had believed in all along.