It took Roy Keane to rattle Liverpool with the dig they deserved

Job done for now, but May 26 will be a different ball game entirely.

In fairness to Liverpool, they can only beat what’s put in front of them and over two legs, that was exactly what they did to Roma.

If there was ever a tie to to sum up Jurgen Klopp’s side, this 13 goal thriller was most certainly it. Mixing the sublime with the ridiculous and the haphazard with the dazzling, they illuminated and folded in equal measure over 180 minutes of off hand football.

But that same off hand football has brought them to a Champions League final as they landed all the blows and dodged all the bullets once more.

Attacking with vigour and confidence from the word go all the way up to the last call at the Stadio Olimpico, Liverpool’s brazen, committed and free-flowing forward play, sourced by and coursing through their three musketeers Salah, Mane and Firmino was fluorescent enough and explosive enough to camouflage their own frailties.

To date it has always been enough and while Liverpool have deficits aplenty, none more so than the shaky Loris Karius in goal, they have the sharpest front three in the world and when that threesome are together there is always hope.

Roma’s own limitations, and they showed to have more of them than Liverpool, lit the touch paper for the three lads and there was no going back then.

In an advertisement for off the bat football, Liverpool were the victors over a startlingly and surprisingly un-Italian side. Naive enough to play no full backs against the tide in the first leg, the Anfield faithful should not make the mistake of getting too excited about taking candy from a baby.

The thing is, in the Champions League final Liverpool will be faced with more bullets than ever before when the Galacticos roll into town and they have not shown near enough to suggest they will continue to get away it.

Because at the end of the day, Roma are still Roma and Real Madrid are a completely different animal.

Real Madrid have their own weaknesses also but they have Ronaldo, Marcelo, Modric, Ramos et al. – a calibre of player that Roma have nobody near, a calibre of player that will punish the mistakes that Liverpool have been making and have continued to make.

Winning is a habit, mistakes are a habit and Liverpool keep on showing that they have plenty of those in them.

Roy Keane, speaking on ITV in the aftermath of Wednesday’s match issued the ‘Pool with a necessary wake-up call.