Watch the final goal from Liverpool's wild comeback against Barcelona in the Champions League
It ain't over 'til it's over.
Yogi Berra's famous words are certainly applicable for what happened across the Atlantic in Liverpool, England, on Tuesday. Liverpool FC was set to take on Barcelona FC in the second leg of the semifinal of the UEFA Champions League — a massive, months-long tournament in which the top club teams from Europe compete against each other. But things looked really bleak for the English side.
In the first leg of the matchup last Wednesday, Barcelona won 3-0 after a dazzling display from superstar Lionel Messi, who scored the match's final two goals. In the Champions League, the winner of a round is based on the aggregate score of the two matches, so Liverpool entered Tuesday's contest down big. They were without two of their best players, the world-renowned Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino, who were both injured.
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But — and forgive yet another cliché — that's why they play the game. Liverpool, stormed back to win 4-0 behind two goals each from Divock Origi and Georgino Wijnaldum, securing a 4-3 aggregate victory to advance to the final on June 1. Origi's second goal came in the 79th minute off a corner kick.
Now, Liverpool — who were runners-up in last year's Champions League — will await the winner of the other semifinal between English Premier League rival Tottenham and the tournament's Dutch Cinderella, Ajax, from Amsterdam. Those two will square off on Wednesday with Ajax holding a 1-0 lead.
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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
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