Champions League: Liverpool welcome Roma to Anfield – Semifinal first leg

Tuesday night’s clash will see two teams that topped their respective groups, with Liverpool comfortably finishing with 3 wins and 3 draws.

Such is the glory of each team’s respective runs. It is interesting to note that both teams defeated the champions-elect of England and Spain, respectively. Both teams have defied long odds and the pitfalls of a long season domestically and in Europe to get this far.

Liverpool, remember, had to go through qualifying to even get into the group stages. They achieved this comfortably, dispatching a quality Hoffenheim team 6-3 on aggregate.

Meanwhile, the Romans had to deal with an even tougher proposition with their group featuring Chelsea and Atletico. They surprised everyone by comfortably finishing in the top 2, ahead of the Spanish capital club by 4 points.

Both teams had somewhat unfancied Round of 16 opponents, with Liverpool smashing Porto 5-0 on aggregate. However, Roma were lucky to scrape through against an experienced Shakhtar outfit, on away goals.

As mentioned previously, both teams achieved miraculous feats in the quarters. In an all English encounter, Liverpool executed a Klopp master plan to beat Manchester City in two legs. Meanwhile Roma utilised a raucous home crowd to inspire another away goals win against the mighty Barcelona.