Liverpool vs Borussia Dortmund match report: Dejan Lovren seals one of the great Anfield comebacks

Liverpool 4 Borussia Dortmund 3 (agg: 5-4)

(Getty)

A comeback in keeping with all the great traditions of this place: only better, stronger, braver. Olympiakos, 2004, is the Anfield gold standard of course, though this surpasses it. Better opposition, by a considerable distance, and a greater challenge: just 33 minutes - to turn around a three-goal advantage which Marcos Reus had established shortly before the hour. Twice Liverpool faced down the need for three goals and twice they were equal to it. The decisive goal – the one which makes this Jurgen Klopp’s Istanbul moment and will be remembered years after he has gone - arrived on 91 minutes. Steven Gerrard had, comparatively speaking, all the time in the world when he netted four minutes from time, those 12 years ago against the Greeks.

When it was all over, Simon Mignolet thundered across the pitch, beating his chest and even Jordan Henderson was on the turf, lurching around on his crutches. Klopp retaining some equanimity – and that, as much as the three goals in 25 minutes, was the miracle of the night.

It was to Klopp that they owed all of this. Dortmund, not Liverpool, were the team of all the talents on the Anfield turf. They’d been the ones Klopp could acknowledge as one of the world’s top five sides beforehand, and the sense of technical inferiority was not so misplaced. Dortmund had fewer weak links. But the man who left their place and reached this place has inculcated a self-belief beyond Liverpool’s knowing. “He was calm. He told us we could do it,” one of the players observed as he joined the procession down the pitch-side and away into the night: ponderous, because no one wanted to leave the arena. It was belief which allowed the German advantage to be cancelled out, piece by piece. There were four shots on target for Liverpool all night and four goals.

For a time – a very long time - it seemed Klopp has believed just a little too much. In the Ruhr last week, he bolstered his midfield with a shield of three, though that vanished in Henderson’s absence. Just the two of midfielders now, and Moreno tearing up the left like holy hell. The thinking seemed to be that Liverpool could power their way to the semi-finals, jet-fuelled by the Anfield atmosphere.

It took ten minutes to shatter the illusion that the golden ticket of Borussia Dortmund meant that Liverpool were in the foothills of a return to European peaks. Dortmund skipped across the wide open midfield spaces. No visiting side, until this match, had scored twice in the opening ten of a European fixture across the vast history of continental competition in this stadium. The extremely uncomfortable contest of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang versus Mamadou Sakho put paid to that. Like some kind of homing device, the excellent Aubameyang stood on the Frenchman as the game continued, much as Henrikh Mkhitaryan looked for the vast spaces Alberto Moreno vacated.

Marco Reus celebrates after making it 3-1 to Dortmund (2016 Getty Images)

Four minutes had passed when Shinji Kagawa drove through and released for Gonzalo Castro whose ball over the top brought a sharp save from by Mignolet from the recipient Aubameyang – only for Mkitarayan to score on the follow-up. The second goal shaded the first for clinical excellent: Marco Reus tearing the midfield apart this time and measuring out the ball behind Sakho which Aubameyang drove into the net.

It was punishment of a kind that the Liverpool history books might have helped Klopp guard against. The reason they succeeded all those years under Bob Paisley was because of the pragmatism. They earned the right to play; sucking the life and the patience out of teams before turning them over. In those years when Europe was done early, Liverpool got back to domestic football and playing the real game again.

But promise revealed itself, even amidst the enormity of the early setback. Divock Origi has been the most encouraging part of this tie and these recent weeks, and his manifestly greater strength caused Dortmund plenty of trouble. He was unplayable for a time in the first half.

Liverpool players celebarate in front of the Kop at full time (Getty)

His shot was deflected wide after James Milner put him through on 17 minutes. His well measured cross for Moreno was crashed wide a minute later by the wing back, for whom this was not a great night. An Origi attempted header was sent wide off his shoulder. And then a neat interchange between Adam Lallana and Philippe Coutinho saw the Brazilian, with quick feet, dart into a gap but fire wide of the left post. Liverpool were not cowed by what had befallen them.

That allowed Anfield to keep dreaming that another miracle of Olympiakos proportions might belong to them, especially when Emre Can played a through ball to Origi three minutes after the restart which the Belgian poked through Roman Weidenfeller’s legs. Yet more when Mats Hummels clinically held back Coutinho as he made to break through and was booked.

It was not the despair but the hope which kept the stadium in its state of nervous anxiety. For a time, the errors of those opening minutes paid dear, because the race for parity left more holes at Liverpool’s back. Hummels played Reus inside Nathaniel Clyne to score for 3-1, with Sakho’s failure to hold the defensive line playing him onside. But then, the recovery to surpass all others.

Coutinho exchanged passes with James Milner and crashing in a right foot shot for 3-2 on 66 minutes. Sakho stooped to head in Milner’s corner on 78 for 3-3. Four minutes had been signalled on the dot matrix board when Daniel Sturridge arrived, released Milner to cross to the far post and Dejan Lovren rose to head home. Stardust moments from a manager of stardust qualities. Liverpool have the right to believe there is more where that came from.