Getting Over Liverpool Winning the Champions League
Tuesday 7th May 2019 will go down as a tough day for any soccer fan who doesn't support Liverpool. The 'Red Men' completed one of the most memorable turnarounds in memory as they bounced back against Barcelona, a Barca team featuring that little magician, Lionel Messi.
It's hard to pinpoint exactly how it happened but Liverpool's continued failure to win a Premier League trophy has become one of football's most uniting stories. Aside from tragedies, which go beyond the game, it's difficult to think of an incident which has caused so many supporters to put their tribalism to one side and bond on a common goal.
Perhaps unsually it isn't the product on the pitch that has people rooting against Liverpool. Even the most ardent rival would agree that the quick, fluid style can be exciting to watch. The players themselves aren't too bad either. Characters like Trent Alexander-Arnold, James Milner, Sadio Mane and Virgil van Dijk certainly don't solicit dislike in the way that John Terry, Dider Drogba, Roy Keane, Ronaldo or Emmanual Adebayor have before. Even serial-diver Mo Salah isn't disliked greatly whilst Jurgen Klopp is generally loved, despite his shameless acting up for the cameras.
Nope, the problem with Liverpool isn't the team, it's the fans. Specifically a small sub-section of the fans, sadly the ones who seem most present on social media. Barely a day seems to have gone past since the turn of the year in which radio talk shows or Twitter timelines have been assualted by some truly awful fans.
Every club has bad fans, but Liverpool's have come to the fore. Fans who believe they have a divine right for success. Fans who famously claim to be "scouse not English". Fans who sing You'll Never Walk Alone for two minutes before the majority of games and then sit silently for ninety minutes. Fans who push locals into fountains. Fans who've defended Luis Suarez for the indefensible. Fans who believe that "this is our year" time after time. Except, and I'm sad to say this, it might just be their year.
I'm not looking forward to them winning the Champions League but the fact is that I've come to terms with it happening.
Liverpool fully deserved to beat Barcelona. The Catalans proved for the second successive year that they are supreme bottlers, too caught up in their own arrogance, Leo's destiny and their belief that they are 'more than a club'. Barcelona, arguably the only club in the wrold more wrapped up in their own mythology than Liverpool, got out-maneuvered, out-fought and out-thought. They are the best team left in the competition and come the first of June they'll be lifting that famous trophy in Madrid.
It's time to take stock, sit back and watch Liverpool's second-leg performance against Barcelona and pay it respect. The fans were top class, the players were incredible and stuck to their gameplan and they are now deserve to win a sixth European cup.
I've come to terms with the fact that come June they'll be a new trophy in Liverpool's cabinet, and so should you, besides when Man City win the league on Sunday their fruitless hunt for a Premier League title will continue.
By Sam Farley