Barcelona

With Mohamed Salah ruled out of Tuesday’s Liverpool-Barcelona Champions League semifinal second leg with a concussion, maybe Jordi Alba thought he was in for a beautiful stroll across the lovely confines of Anfield. Maybe, looking across at replacement Xherdan Shaqiri, he thought, “Hell yeah, I might be marginally taller than this dude.” 

Or perhaps he thought he’d simply feed it to Lionel Messi (as has been the case on three occasions in LaLiga and twice in the UCL this season) and let him do the rest. 

All Barcelona had to do was get one. One away goal and it would all be over for Liverpool. One simple goal from the team with the greatest goal scorer of this era, perhaps of all time.

But Alisson wouldn’t let it happen. 

What a difference a goalkeeper makes.

Last year, Liverpool’s Champions League run was ended by poor goalkeeping, Loris Karius undoing all the good work done by Jurgen Klopp’s side against Real Madrid. 

Last Wednesday, Lionel Messi recorded his 600th goal for Barcelona during his club’s 3-0 Champions League semifinal first leg victory over Liverpool. It was an astonishing free kick, the 42nd of his Barça career, that venomously flew right past Joe Gomez’s face before curling into the top corner from 35 yards out. 

One of the greatest midfielders of his generation, Xavi has announced that he'll retire at the end of the season to pursue a coaching career. The maestro spent 17 years in Barcelona before moving to Al-Sadd in Qatar in 2015.

As a graduate of Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy, Xavi made his first team debut for Barcelona in 1998 at just 18 years of age. Playing at Barcelona for over 17 years, Xavi was an integral part of the midfield three, playing brilliant through balls and very rarely losing possession.

Liverpool was dominating in the second half. Fullbacks were flying forward, midfielders were ripping shots and forwards were bamboozling defenders.

But only Barcelona had Lionel Messi.

More than ever before, Messi is carrying Barcelona this season. Unlike past Champions League-winning sides Messi has been a part of, he is both the primary goal scorer and primary goal creator. 

Barcelona and Liverpool both started the first leg of their Champions League semifinal with plenty of attacking intent, throwing caution to the wind in search of a go-ahead goal. It didn’t take too long to arrive, with a Luis Suarez goal vs Liverpool giving the home side a lead in the 26th minute. 

And the former Liverpool man had no problem celebrating his goal.

Often, players choose to refrain from celebrating a goal against a former club as a show of respect. It’s a nice gesture. 

It seems as though football fans become more emboldened the better their team does. And while many British supporters like to claim they’re better than their continental counterparts when it comes to racism, violence and general hooliganism, Liverpool fans are proving they’re a despicable lot ahead of the Champions League semifinal first leg in Barcelona on Wednesday.