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Football

01st May 2019

Messi’s genius and Jurgen Klopp like the rest of us, can only smile

Niall McIntyre

What else was there to do?

Andy Robertson galloped up and down that left flank like a man possessed. Jordan Henderson was thrown in at the deep end quicker than he could have imagined but he battled and he hassled and he tried. Each and every Liverpool player ran their heart out at the Camp Nou on Wednesday evening.

They couldn’t have done much more.

Barcelona are just on a different planet entirely. Total football, unstoppable madness – call it whatever you want – whenever the lads clad in blue and maroon are let loose in the wide open spaces of the world’s most famous football stadium – there’s little any team can do in response.

With Barcelona in this kind of mood and with the football Gods on side, Liverpool realistically never stood a chance. Not here.

Some crucial breaks went against Jurgen Klopp’s team. On another day and with another referee in charge of things, Sadio Mane could very feasibly have been awarded a penalty after just four minutes of play.

A goal to the good and things would have been different for the away team.

Then, not long after Suarez had ransacked them down the other end, you would have put the house on that same Senegalese winger to hit the net with the form he’s in.

He didn’t, blazed over the bar. These are the things that make the difference.

This just wasn’t their day.

The breaks and the chances just didn’t go Liverpool’s way out there and when it’s one of those nights for the opposition, Barcelona are never not going to make hay.

For crying out loud they’ve Lionel Messi out there. He did what he does, a calmly taken second when others might have panicked and a free-kick struck sweeter than any has been struck before.

Jurgen Klopp is only human. Of course he was going to smile at that.

What a team.

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