Miracle of Anfield: Liverpool beat Barcelona 4-0 to reach Champions League final - On This Day May 7 2019

There have been some truly amazing European nights at Anfield, each defined by Liverpool triumphing against the odds, be it a superior opponent, huge goal deficit, shortage of time or a combination.

Among the historic evenings this century are the Luis Garcia 'ghost goal' win against Chelsea, victory over Olympiakos to sneak through the Champions League group stage that same season, and a roaring comeback against Borussia Dortmund in 2016's Europa League quarter-finals.

Go back further and there are famous come-from-behind wins over Auxerre, Bruges and St Etienne.

But those were all dwarfed on May 7, 2019.

Makeshift frontline

Having lost the opening leg of their semi-final 3-0 to Barcelona at the Nou Camp, few people gave Liverpool a chance of reaching a second successive Champions League final.

Factored in to the 66/1 price of the Reds achieving the seemingly impossible was the absence of both Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino through injury.

That meant the very much second-string Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri joined Sadio Mane up front, a forward line that would hardly have had Barca's star-studded team quaking in their boots.

An injury that helped

Although Liverpool led 1-0 at half-time having totally dominated a lacklustre Barcelona, who could only muster one genuine goalscoring opportunity, their task was made even harder when Andy Robertson failed to return for the second half.

It meant a reshuffle, with James Milner moving out of midfield to fill in as a makeshift left-back.

But Robertson's injury would prove to be the catalyst for victory, as within 10 minutes of the restart his replacement Georginio Wijnaldum had scored twice to level the tie at 3-3.

Origi the hero

Wijnaldum's impact left the tie in the balance, but Liverpool had all the momentum - step forward Origi.

The Belgian, who had earlier netted his first ever Champions League goal, was alive to Trent Alexander-Arnold's ingenuity, as the full-back feigned to take a corner before quickly firing it into the six-yard box.

Origi swept the ball home to seal one of football's most unlikely comebacks, and probably clinch top spot in the Anfield chart of European drama.

For Barcelona it was simply a repeat of what had happened to them against Roma in the quarter-finals 12 months previously.

Ouch.

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