
Better than Istanbul? Yes, go on then. It was better than Istanbul. Barcelona are better than AC Milan. Lionel Messi is better than Kaka. And Liverpool now are better than Liverpool then. Liverpool now are nothing less than astonishing.

At the end of this wonderful, unbelievable, fantastical game, Jurgen Klopp linked arms with his players, facing The Kop as the whole of Anfield, including some among the bereft Catalan enclave, sung You’ll Never Walk Alone.

One had the feeling this was the moment he had been working towards since the day he set foot on Merseyside. This spirit. This togetherness. This performance. This passion, this emotion: it was all here, every last drop of what he wanted to achieve. And yet, there is still such a long way to go.

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Divock Origi (right) celebrates with Xherdan Shaqiri (left) after scoring Liverpool's fourth to complete the comeback

The Belgian striker quickly reacted to a brilliant corner from Trent Alexander-Arnold to complete a spectacular comeback

Origi runs over to celebrates with Alexander-Arnold after scoring the fourth goal to put Liverpool in the lead on aggregate

Origi is swarmed by his Liverpool team-mates after scoring the fourth goal to send Anfield into a frenzy on Tuesday

Georginio Wijnaldum celebrates scoring Liverpool's third goal to bring them level with Barcelona on aggregate

The second-half substitute rose highest to head in his second goal just minutes after scoring his first for the hosts

The Dutchman hangs in the air as he watches the ball fly into Marc-Andre ter Stegen's net during the second half

Wijnaldum runs to celebrate in front of the Kop after bringing the aggregate score back to 3-3 during the second half

The 28-year-old latched on to a cross to put his shot low and hard past Barcelona's German goalkeeper

Ter Stegen is unable to keep the ball out as Wijnaldum scores Liverpool's second goal to send fans into a frenzy

Liverpool's No 5 celebrates by picking up the ball and running back to the halfway line to get play restarted

MATCH FACTS, PLAYER RATINGS AND MATCH ZONE LIVERPOOL: (4-3-3) Alisson 8 ; Alexander-Arnold 9 , Matip 7.5, Van Dijk 9 , Robertson 8 (Wijnaldum 46, 8.5); Fabinho 9 , Milner 9 , Henderson 9 ; Mane 9 , Shaqiri 8.5 (Sturridge 90), Origi 9.5 SUBS NOT USED: Mignolet (GK); Lovren, Gomez, Brewster, Woodburn GOALS: Origi (7, 79), Wijnaldum (54, 56) BOOKINGS: Fabinho (11), Matip (66) MANAGER: Jurgen Klopp 9 BARCELONA: (4-3-3) Ter Stegen 6; Sergi Roberto 6, Pique 7, Lenglet 6, Alba 6; Rakitic 6, Busquets 6.5, Vidal 6.5 (Arthur 75, 6); Coutinho 5.5 (Semedo 60, 6), Suarez 6, Messi 6.5 SUBS NOT USED: Cillessen (GK); Malcom, Umtiti, Vermaelen, Alena GOALS: None BOOKINGS: Busquets (45+1), Rakitic (53), Semedo (76) MANAGER: Ernesto Valverde 5 REFEREE: Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey) 8 MAN OF THE MATCH: Divock Origi VENUE: Anfield ATTENDANCE: 53,300 Ratings by Pete Jenson For more of Sportsmail's fantastic MATCH ZONE feature, please click here. Divock Origi (No 27) got Liverpool off to a flying start with a tap-in to spark huge hopes of a comeback early on Georginio Wijnaldum (No 5) headed in Liverpool's third to make it all square on aggregate minutes after scoring the hosts' second Advertisement

Suddenly, however, the potential disappointment of falling a point short to Manchester City on Sunday, did not appear so bleak. Liverpool will have something to play for beyond that. They will have a second consecutive Champions League final but, this time, not against the most experienced team in Europe. Liverpool will face the winners of tonight’s meeting between Tottenham and Ajax. It could be a perfect ending. Even if it is Manchester City’s season, it may be theirs too.

And they would deserve it like no team before; they would deserve it as much as they did not deserve the three goal defeat at Nou Camp that had to be overturned on Tuesday night. First, by a team shorn of its finest strikers in Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino and then, after half-time, without one of the stand out players of this season, Andrew Robertson. Just as Chelsea conquered Europe with Jose Bosingwa at centre-half and Ryan Bertrand playing left midfield, Liverpool swept aside Barcelona with Divock Origi leading the line, Xherdan Shaqiri in support and James Milner as a makeshift left-back.

What a performance it was. Liverpool did not just defeat Barcelona physically, but technically, tactically, and ultimately intellectually, too. Barcelona, considered by many the greatest team in Europe, were outsmarted by a 20-year-old from West Derby in Merseyside. Trent Alexander-Arnold was still thinking when Barcelona stopped for the fourth goal, meaning he sold them a dummy that resonated across the globe as loud as any shot, sending Liverpool to Madrid on June 1.

Divock Origi (left) gets Liverpool off to a flying start after scoring a tap-in just seven minutes after kick off

The Belgian striker, who was filling in for the injured Mohamed Salah, tapped in a saved Jordan Henderson shot

Barcelona keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen appeals for an offside as Henderson and Origi collect the ball to restart the game

Henderson and Origi barely celebrate as they sprint back to the halfway line to restart the game after getting the perfect start

The Liverpool skipper screams in delight after Origi scored the opening goal in the first half on Tuesday evening

SIMPLY GENIUS 🤯



Trent Alexander-Arnold spots Barcelona napping and Divock Origi makes no mistake!!!



4-0 Liverpool 😱



Wow. pic.twitter.com/K05v1jgazZ — The Premier League is BACK on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) May 7, 2019

What a brain, what audacity. Divock Origi, who has scored some of the most important goals in the history of this club, while being its fifth choice striker, got what proved to be the winner and therefore the back page glory, but Alexander-Arnold was the evil genius behind the move. Liverpool won a corner and Alexander-Arnold walked over to the ball by the flag, before seeming to change his mind about taking it, and stepping away.

Barcelona, at that moment, relaxed, regrouped, some even turned their backs to reset for the new taker. At which point, Alexander-Arnold switched direction and whipped it in. Origi met the ball first time, hit the net and Barcelona stood baffled. That old one? How could they be so foolish? How could they be so…out?

Yet out they are. Magnficently out. Stupendously out. Liverpool did not even need extra time. They overturned a three-goal deficit, and deserved it. Istanbul had elements of luck.

Even in that seismic second-half Liverpool were not entirely dominant and the game actually ended a 3-3 draw. This was different.

This was a magnificent performance, of not just courage but footballing excellence. There is so much more to Liverpool than that ferocious press yet, on nights like this, it is those moments that resonate. How do they keep it up. How, amidst the most hard fought title race in history, do they find the energy for this?

Liverpool were ahead early but a single away goal would have left them needing five. So when Robertson left the field it seemed as if obstacles were mounting against them. And it did change the game but, ironically, for the better – because it introduced another of the night’s matchwinners: Georginio Wijnaldum.

Fabinho slides in to win the ball before catching Suarez on the follow-through during the first half of their second leg clash

Liverpool's Fabinho (No 3) shouts at Luis Suarez after the Uruguayan striker sits on the ground after a coming together

The Brazilian midfielder is booked for his hard challenge on Suarez as Sergio Busquets (right) consoles him

To call him a super sub really doesn’t do it justice. Super subs are strikers, chucked on as a last resort. Wijnaldum had a meatier role, shoring up midfield, so Milner could go to full-back. But he had bigger plans. He turned the match on its head, instead.

It was Wijnaldum’s second-half goals that brought Liverpool level and shook Lionel Messi and Barcelona to their foundations. When Liverpool scored the first there was hope – but few could have imagined this, two goals in three minutes to level the aggregate score at 3-3, and give Liverpool the momentum for a final push to victory.

Wijnaldum has a knack for it at this stage in the competition. He has only scored one other Champions League goal and that was in the semi-final against Roma last year. That was another crazy tie, although after this we may have to redefine lunacy. So let’s keep it simple. This is how Wijnaldum brought Barcelona to their knees.

In the 54th minute, he arrived late into the box, to meet a perfect cross from Alexander-Arnold. His shot was low and straight and maybe goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen should have done better. He didn’t, meaning Liverpool were a goal away. Then, two minutes later, Shaqiri hit a lovely cross that Wijnaldum met with a header. Level. But more than that, really; because from there, it seemed there could only be one winner.

Reds captain Henderson clutches his knee in agony after being caught just outside the Barcelona box

Henderson covers his face while he receives treatment from the Liverpool physios after going down with an injury

Jurgen Klopp has his head in his hands as he watches Henderson receive treatment on the other side of the pitch

Salah was in the stand wearing a shirt with the message ‘Never give up’ and the reason Liverpool could still feel the slightest smidgeon of optimism after conceding three at Nou Camp, is that if Barcelona lose in Europe, they tend to do so spectacularly. Their last four defeats in this competition have been by 3-0, 3-0, 4-0 and 4-0. Scoring early against them tends to have a very positive effect, too, so the mood once Liverpool went ahead after seven minutes went beyond euphoria towards frenzy. From the start, Liverpool were on the front foot, ferocious, ambitious, swarming all over Barcelona, allowing them no time on the ball, and precious little to think. Yet it was still an impossible dream. Origi’s goal, however, transformed it.

Jordan Henderson – a lion, as always on these occasions – battled through after a poor Jordi Alba header had set up Sadio Mane, but looked to have wasted his chance when his shot flew too near to ter Stegen. He only parried it, however, and Origi – the hero of Saturday’s win over Newcastle – drove it into the unattended net.

Of course, this is Barcelona, meaning Alisson had to be at his best on more than one occasion. Yet this was a very fine performance rather than one where the goalkeeper wins man of the match. He saved from Alba, from Messi, from Luis Suarez – yet nothing we hadn’t see before. There was no fortune in Liverpool’s win, no reason for Barcelona to feel hard done by.

The pre-match soundtrack at Anfield told its own story. Lots of songs about happy outcomes, dreams and belief. And it is easy to be cynical about that old cliché, the famous European nights at Anfield - but they exist. This ground is rarely home to the normal, mundane or expected. Klopp’s instruction, if Liverpool were to fail, was to ‘fall brilliantly’. Maybe that’s what he thought would happen, too. Maybe that’s why, at the end, he was as lost in the moment as any Koppite. Because they did not fail, not even brilliantly. They gave this stadium arguably the greatest European night it has ever witnessed. And that, as you know, is saying something.

Messi (left) chases down James Milner (centre) who shields the ball away from the Argentinian in the first half

Referee Cuneyt Cakir talks with both Messi and Andy Robertson after the two have a disagreement in the first half

A sea of red and white scarves flood the Kop at Anfield while huge flags are waved before the game on Tuesday