Barcelona collapse and blow three-goal advantage against Liverpool

Barcelona fail to learn from last season’s choke job and as Liverpool complete the comeback at Anfield.

Barcelona came into Anfield presumably having learned from their shock defeat and elimination by Roma last season. Apparently that was not the case in the slightest as Liverpool came back from a three-goal deficit to beat Barcelona, 4-0.

For the second year in row, Barcelona crumbled in an away match when they seemingly had the tie all but won. Ernesto Valverde came into this game stressing that the team could not repeat the same thing from last year and that they were going to go all out to get a crucial away goal. His line-up showed otherwise.

In a puzzling decision, Valverde went with the same line-up from the first leg despite the team looking infinitely better in the second-half after he made some adjustments. Vidal started in midfield, Sergi Roberto as the right-back, and Philippe Coutinho on the left accompanying Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.

Liverpool hit them within the opening ten minutes and immediately got back in the game. Barcelona were able to stabilize the game and even created a few chances with Alba through on goal and, inexplicably, passed the ball back to Messi who was dispossessed before he could get the shot off.

Liverpool came out in the second half strong and in a matter of a few minutes, tied the game on aggregate. The killing blow came late when, off a corner, Trent-Alexander Arnold caught the Barcelona team by surprised and crossed the ball for an open Origi who slotted the ball past the head of Gerard Pique.

This game will be remembered for Liverpool pulling off the improbable but as well as Barcelona choking away a sizable lead and perhaps the one that ends Ernesto Valverde’s tenure as manager.

For a team who placed such an emphasis on winning the Champions League, Barcelona came out anxious and looked like a team who were mentally fragile. It was evident once the third goal came in and the look on the faces of players like Messi and Suarez told the whole story. A look of disbelief that this was happening again and powerless to stop it.

Players who had been integral to their success, like Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, had awful games with the former being responsible for two of Liverpool’s four goals and the former looking real slow and demonstrating that his time with Barcelona may be coming to an end. Even more so with the pending arrival of Frenkie de Jong.

Philippe Coutinho was given another shot and once again failed to produce anything at all. His arrival midway through last season was supposed to lighten the burden on Messi in terms of being the only playmaker. He’s done anything but and Barcelona should be looking to move him on in the summer.

For Barcelona, this may be go down as an even worse loss than the one against Roma. Liverpool were without both Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah and they were still able to score four and keep a clean sheet.

As for what’s next, that’s anyone’s guess. This wound will take a long time to heal. A domestic double is no longer good enough for Barcelona. It’s wait ’til next season if they want to get that Champions League monkey off their back.