heighway

Just watched Divock's goal tally for us (in case he'll feature), he has scored some belters and some crucial goals for us too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKgbNaF3gbw

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Here ya go

Mo has a decent record with pens, usually takes them for Egypt and has taken a few for us as well. Dr Google reveals he has converted 10 of the 13 pens he has taken.

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Pirlo's autobiography is a very good read and the chapter on Istanbul has this gem of a quote: I’ll never fully shake that sense of absolute impotence when destiny is at work. The feeling will cling to my feet forever, trying to pull me down... There are always lessons to be found in the darkest moments. It’s a moral obligation to dig deep and find that little glimmer of hope or pearl of wisdom. You might hit upon an elegant phrase that stays with you and makes the journey that little bit less bitter. I’ve tried with Istanbul and haven’t managed to get beyond these words: for f***’s sake.

That hideous cardigan yoke he wears should permanently disbar him from being put anywhere near the word "style"

An amazing season from the players and Jurgen and galling that we finish second after it. Can't see FIFA/UEFA properly addressing the financial fair play issue though given the way both organizations whore themselves after the big bucks. It is telling that Pep has failed to win CL since 2011 though, and we've seen the likes of Ajax this season outplay and defeat teams with squillions more money than they do so the big prizes/ big games don't always go to those with the biggest pockets. We have a fantastic manager and fantastic players and a fantastic team. If anyone can best City next year, we can.

Bonkers having the final there, even by UEFA standards. Was just reading on the BBC website game kicks off at 11pm local time. And, travel-wise, "The only way to fly direct to Baku for the game would be to leave London on the Saturday beforehand and return a week later, three days after the trophy has been lifted. That's an eight-day trip for 90 minutes of football - and for a game which kicks of at 11pm local time (20:00 BST), so will not finish until around 1am! So what about the train? It takes more than four days to travel from London to Baku on public transport, passing through seven countries. The whole journey would likely include 11 changes and a two-day train journey from Kharkiv in Ukraine to Baku.Of course, you could drive, but that is hardly an enticing prospect and the minimum journey time is listed online as 58 hours." Goes without saying of course that it is the kind of hellish trip Chelsea fans deserve!

Nice piece by Lawro from today's Irish Times: There’s so much from Tuesday night at Anfield that will live long in the memory, but one thing I will never forget was the sight of lots of Liverpool fans staying on in the stadium long after the players had left the pitch, not making any noise, just sitting there quietly, as if they were trying to come to terms with what they had just witnessed. Asking themselves, ‘did that really happen?’ I was asking myself the same thing. Later outside the ground I saw some Barcelona fans waiting for their team bus, ready to give them what for. Because for them, for everyone, what had happened just beggared belief. “Look, this really is impossible,” Jürgen Klopp had told his players in a meeting before the game, “but when I look around the room, I think, hold on a minute . . . it might just be possible.” I don’t know if he actually believed that, I certainly didn’t. Not least because Liverpool were without two thirds of their attack. And, most likely, having to keep a Barcelona attack made up of the genius that is Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho scoreless. If you’d presented that script, the story ending with Liverpool winning 4-0 and going through to the final . . . no chance. In the end it was fantasy football. Anfield has had many magical nights down through the years, but for me this one topped them all. I would even put it ahead of Istanbul, and I genuinely never imagined anything bettering that. All through those 94 minutes the players knew that however immense the effort they put in, it would all count for nothing if Barcelona got even one goal. And Barcelona expected to score. There was a little bit of arrogance about that, but if you’ve got Messi in your team, you’re probably entitled to assume the goal will come. And even though Liverpool got that early goal, it was 47 minutes before they scored the second, with plenty of good Barcelona chances in between. So I still didn’t see it coming. And by then Liverpool were often going two on two at the back, both full-backs pushing up, a gamble they had to take. Once Georginio Wijnaldum had scored those two quick goals, for Barcelona it had become like trying to turn a tanker around. And they just couldn’t do it. You could see the frustration on their faces, Suarez getting more and more angry by the minute, he and Messi looking utterly bewildered when Origi got the fourth. I know when we talk about European nights at Anfield it riles other supporters, they believe they can create an atmosphere just like it. But it’s different at Anfield. It IS different. You have to experience it. There’s just something about those people and that ground on European nights, they applaud everything, every tackle made, every throw-in won, roars come from nowhere, they just ratchet up the atmosphere, the intensity, it becomes electric. And that gets to the opposition. It got to Barcelona. The 12th man had a major, major influence on that game. I have never experienced an atmosphere like it. Maybe Klopp sowed the seed when he told his players ‘it might just be possible’. And that’s the thing with Jurgen Klopp, he gets everything out his players, literally everything, and he makes every one of them better. Sometimes the most important people at a club are the players who don’t play regularly, because they’re the ones who can cause you problems. But Klopp does not allow that to happen. He takes no s***. He’s all the players’ friend, but he’s not their best friend. That’s the difference. He loses it on occasion too, and that keeps them on their toes. You cannot have performances like Tuesday night’s without all the players being in it together. You can see the camaraderie, and while those who aren’t playing might be miffed, you can see how pleased they are for the ones who do. That’s why that sense of team is so massive in the club. And that’s what Klopp has helped create. I see him in action behind the scenes sometimes and he treats everyone the same, whether it’s Mo Salah or a groundsman. As far as he’s concerned everyone there is part of the club. LFC TV have an office at the training ground and he goes in there sometimes looking for a cigarette. He’ll knock on the door, if he sees someone who he’s never met before he introduces himself, ‘Hi, I’m Jurgen, who are you?’ ‘Are you new to the club?’ ‘What’s your job?’ All that. He’s just one of those guys who gets it. He’s a perfect fit for the club. And I think players around the world are looking at Liverpool now and thinking ‘wow, I’d love to play for Klopp’. He is a massive sell for the club. He alone attracts players. Any player would love to play for him. I’m 61 and I’d love to play for him. He is creating something very special at Liverpool, and on Tuesday night he and his players created a night like no other. Fantasy football on a fantasy night.

There was a piece in The Guardian a couple days ago, mainly about LFC v Barca, saying that the power and stamina of PL teams now gives them the edge over European sides. Messi himself said after first leg that Barca couldn't match Liverpool's energy over 90 minutes.

True. Wonder will one of our promising young keepers get the subs bench role next season. Mig surely will shuffle off to Buffalo or wherever.

Aside from the 3-0 Newcastle FA Cup win in 1974, most of our cup final wins, both domestic and European, have been hard fought victories. We have everything it takes to win another hard final and the win will be all the sweeter for it.

After the heart-scalding nature of last year's final defeat, there is no way we are not winning it this year, even if we had to play Spurs and Ajax together.

Some of those Spanish press quotes are well over the top, like Valverde being accused of robbing Messi of two CL's. FFS, just cos he might be the best player in the world doesn't give him the right to winning the CL -and he has won it a few times already anyhow, plenty of brilliant players never got a sniff of it.

He has a Shankly-esque flair for a stirring phrase, and also for the values of passion and hard work and team spirit. A fabulous man and manager.

Ahh the bi-polarism of being a footy fan. But I'll take a ticket for this bi-polar bus (it's at least better than the bi-polar Benteke minibus of a few years ago!)

Curse you Guardiola and your horrible abomination of a cardigan

I thought Reddit soccer streams had been nixed a while back, maybe that was just for PL games?

Thanks buddy!

Aggh, can't find a stream so far. Can anyone point me to one?

Under the old system we'd have 63 points now, which would usually be more than enough to have won the league in its 42-game season.

But not a young Victor Moses

Any streams?