A thrilling 4-0 victory at Anfield sent Liverpool back to the Champions League final, and Lionel Messi off to wonder how it all went so wrong.
LIVERPOOL, England — Liverpool’s players stood in front of the Kop, those who had played and those who had watched, their heads shaking in disbelief, their arms draped over one another’s shoulders, as if they needed to hold on to something, anything, to make sure it was real.
In front of them, all around them, flags fluttered and scarves waved and spines tingled as Anfield sang its hymnal. The stands were still full. Barely a soul had moved. Nobody wanted to break the spell, to head out into the night. Nobody wanted the feeling to end.
In the corner, far away, Barcelona’s fans stood, too, doubtless desperate to leave, to escape, but with nowhere to go. Police procedure determines that traveling fans must stay behind until the home crowd has cleared, to reduce the risk of disturbances. It feels, at times like this, a particularly cruel form of torture.
Barcelona had suffered one of the most humiliating nights in its history, beaten, 4-0, by a Liverpool team that had lost the first leg of this Champions League semifinal by 3-0, and had arrived at this game more in hope than expectation. Liverpool’s manager, Jürgen Klopp, had asked his team’s fans to turn the evening into a “party.” He had encouraged his players that if they were to fail, they were to do so “gloriously.”
And now, after slipping to the most abject, most hollowing of defeats, now Barcelona’s fans found themselves trapped, shellshocked, forced to watch others revel in their misery, an agonizing glimpse of what they might have won, of what they thought they had.
As “You’ll Never Walk Alone” reached its key change, though, a handful picked up their scarves — or whatever they had to hand: a jersey, a banner, a Catalan flag — and held them aloft. More and more joined them, brandishing their club’s colors, or their nation’s, in defiance. Sometimes, there is nothing to do but succumb.
Barcelona’s season started, 10 long months ago, with Lionel Messi on the field at Camp Nou, a microphone in his right hand, his left slung awkwardly behind his back. Messi rarely speaks publicly. It is a tradition that Barcelona’s “first captain” gives an address on the eve of the campaign, though, at the exhibition game for the Joan Gamper trophy.
