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Liverpool won their latest European semi-final before a ball had even been kicked.

If Waterloo was won the on the playing fields of Eton, the Reds' latest campaign victory was won on the streets of Anfield.

The team coach welcome has become as much a part of the European matchday atmosphere as Ring of Fire is now, or the Joey Ate The Frogs Legs banner used to be.

Anfield outsiders sneered after the delirium which greeted the coach for the Borussia Dortmund match - BEFORE the game.

“It's only a quarter-final,” they smirked. “What's that all about?”

The answer that night came in the dramatic denouement as Liverpool were inspired to complete the most unlikely of comebacks.

Those sparkling street scenes are all about creating a sense of occasion, of instilling trepidation in the visitors and a sense that anything is impossible in their own players.

For years Reds fans have done it inside the stadium. Now they're doing it outside too.

The scenes along Anfield Road before Villarreal and Liverpool even arrived at the stadium were inspiring – with the corner outside the King Harry pub a kaleidoscopic pulse.

Thousands of fans thronged the streets and the pavement.

Fireworks, flares and red smoke billowed as Reds fans gave it the full Dante's Inferno treatment.

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Fronted by a posh people's carrier escort, the coach crawled through the hordes.

“At 6.45 when we drove through the streets it was nice. But not so many flares next time. We couldn't see too much,” laughed Jurgen Klopp later.

The social media accounts of the players involved shows how much the occasion impacted on their consciousness, how much it affected their pre-match psychology.

And it does.

The sense of occasion a welcome like that creates means that when you go 2-0 down, or 3-1 down, there's a sense that the game isn't lost.

And the more “famous fightbacks” Liverpool achieve, the more it becomes a self perpetuating theory.

Last night it was 'only' a one-nil first leg lead Liverpool had to overcome.

But the intensity of the atmosphere which continued inside the stadium before and after kick-off ensured it was wiped out inside six minutes.

But even one-nil leads in Europe can be precarious. Just one slip can prove fatal.

While Liverpool's fans maintained their intensity, so did their players.

It's a symbiotic relationship – and it's fanned by a manager whose enthusiasm and antics on the touchline are only marginally less manic than the fans who sit on the Kop.

It's why Jurgen Klopp marches his players down to the Kop End after a home draw with West Brom, or speaks of being “alone” when fans left early against Crystal Palace.

He was at it again last night.

“Anfield is special when we make it special – and that means all of us,” he declared in his programme notes.

“The players know great moments and nights don't happen here just because you step off a bus and touch the sign on the way to the pitch. Great things happen here when players and supporters make it happen.”

They made it happen last night – and Klopp's celebrations at the final whistle were memorable.

He strode purposefully towards each section of the stadium, reacting to the roars like a delighted cheerleader.

“Don't make it about me,” he said afterwards. “I'm part of a team.”

He is. One big, colourful, hugely effective team.

And it operates on and off the pitch.