Liverpool's 4-3 win over Borussia is another Istanbul moment, says Richard Buxton
Liverpool's comeback in Anfield ranks up there with the best of them
QUARTER-FINAL, 2nd LEG
LIVERPOOL 4
(Divock Origi 48, Philippe Coutinho 66, Mamadou Sakho 78, Dejan Lovren 90+1)
DORTMUND 3
(Henrikh Mkhitaryan 5, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 9, Marco Reus 57)
Liverpool win 5-4 on aggregate
Within the space of 10 minutes, Borussia Dortmund had blown Anfield's doors off.
By the end, however, they were the ones who were completely blown away.
Even stacked against some of the most historic comebacks in Liverpool's history; a litany of results that warrants company with the best of them in continental football, yesterday morning's (Singapore time) Europa League quarter-final encounter will rise above all others.
None could not have envisaged that Liverpool's 4-3 win over Thomas Tuchel's side would have played out quite like this.
In the formative months of his reign, against his former club, Juergen Klopp delivered something truly special.
His players did not simply use the swirling tide of hair-raising emotion of the Anfield crowd as a springboard to book their place in the semi-finals; they rode it like a gifted surfer catching the crest of a wave.
Everything Tuchel had inherited at Dortmund was largely, if not entirely, attributable to his predecessor.
Emotional football was the groundwork which had made the Bundesliga club such a formidable and free-scoring prospect this season.
Until now.
For 75 minutes, they had been cruising into the last four, having sucker-punched their hosts early on.
By the time Dejan Lovren had headed home in the 91st minute, their inability to detach themselves from Klopp's psyche had firmly come home to roost.
Of all the teams in the Europa League's last eight, Dortmund had been the outstanding favourites.
At the end of this second-leg tie, their players stood on the Anfield turf in the same position that their hosts had once been, almost two years ago.
Glory beckoned for their burgeoning crop of players, but at the decisive moment, they failed to keep their heads.
Even Tuchel was at a loss to explain his side's ability to throw away a comfortable advantage, having scored three away goals at Anfield.
SPIRITED
Sometimes there can be no other logical explanation; sometimes the paradigm that the team who want to win it more triumph over the one with better players, rings true.
In Klopp's own words, that's football.
Liverpool simply wanted it more. This was their Istanbul moment; one which will continue to live long in the public consciousness.
Sights, sounds and smells all became intertwined; the stadium reverberated to its very foundations; doubters finally became believers, just like in 2005 when they stunned AC Milan to lift the European Cup after being put to the sword in the first half when they were 3-0 down.
Matches like this were why Klopp had become so drawn to the challenge of English football's perennial underachievers.
Restoring parity at Anfield with a Champions League return was always going to require a period in the wilderness, working to firm up the foundations.
DREAM
This season's English Premier League is unlikely to yield that return to Europe's elite club competition for Liverpool, with a seven-point gap to bridge in their remaining seven games.
Daring to dream that the exile could potentially be ended in the space of little over seven months was always considered more than a touch ambitious.
But, in Klopp, the wild man from the Black Forest, Liverpool are now in line to realise what was once unattainable.
A Europa Cup win would mean a spot in next season's Champions League.
Going for glory in next month's final in Basel looks set to be that golden ticket.
And the Reds are now three matches away from pulling it off.
OTHER RESULTS
Shakhtar Donetsk 4 Braga 0
(Shakhtar win 6-1 on aggregate)
Sparta Prague 2 Villarreal 4
(Villarreal win 6-3 on aggregate)
Sevilla 1 Athletic Bilbao 2
(3-3 on aggregate, Sevilla win 5-4 on penalties)
Pool fan names son after Lovren
A Liverpool fan has named his son after Dejan Lovren who scored a dramatic stoppage-time winner in the Reds' Europa League comeback victory over Borussia Dortmund yesterday morning (Singapore time).
The fan, identified as Michael, told BBC 5 live that he will name his firstborn after the Croatia defender.
"I'm going to call him Dejan. This is the greatest day of my life.
"I am Liverpool Football Club. I've been to Istanbul and Rome. I've been everywhere. But that was fantastic."
He had to watch the match from the hospital where his wife gave birth to a son. - Wire Services.
YELLOW SUBMARINE HEAD TO HOME OF THE BEATLES
— Villarreal representative Marcos Senna (above). PHOTO: REUTERS
Villarreal are relishing the prospects of beating English opposition for the first time in 11 attempts when they entertain Liverpool in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final this month.
The Spanish outfit, nicknamed The Yellow Submarine, have notched six draws and four losses against English sides since beating Liverpool's city rivals Everton in qualifying for the 2005-06 Champions League.
But they will be confident that they can see off the Reds after an excellent season, in which they have beaten the likes of Real Madrid and Napoli, and drawn with Barcelona.
"We'll try and win the home leg, without conceding an away goal to make it easier, as we know it will be difficult away," said Villarreal representative and former midfielder Marcos Senna after yesterday's draw in Nyon, Switzerland.
"We are happy with the draw. We did not want to meet Sevilla, we want to meet them in the final."
Liverpool are the only unbeaten side left in the competition and have never played Villarreal before.
The first leg will be played in Villarreal on April 28, with The Yellow Submarine heading to Merseyside for the return leg on May 5. The final is set for Basel, Switzerland, on May 18 with the winners getting a place in the Champions League group stages.
Defending champions Sevilla face Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk in the other semi-final.
Villarreal, fourth in La Liga, are looking to reach their maiden major European final, after Europa League last-four defeats in 2004 and 2011 and a Champions League semi-final loss in 2006.
In stark contrast, Liverpool are attempting to win their ninth major continental trophy, and in the process, draw level with Sevilla as the competition's record four-time winners.
HAT-TRICK BID
Sevilla are bidding to win a third consecutive Europa League.
Their quartet of titles have all come in the last decade, with victory against Espanyol in 2007 making them just the second club after Real Madrid to win the competition in successive years.
They backed that up by repeating the feat 11 months ago against Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.
Only a fifth Europa League crown would see them return to the Champions League, as Unai Emery's men sit seventh in La Liga, 12 points behind Villarreal. - AFP.
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