The mercurial Lionel Messi inspired last week’s comfortable first-leg win for the LaLiga champions but he and his celebrated team-mates were consumed by a red wave lacking the awesome qualities of Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.

Turnarounds such as this scarcely credible 4-3 aggregate triumph have become something of a habit for Liverpool, but this one might just top the lot.

From Istanbul to Merseyside, Omnisport takes a look back at some of the most special European nights Liverpool have produced.

LIVERPOOL 3-1 OLYMPIACOS, CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE, 2004

Rafael Benitez’s side were faltering in the early weeks of his first season at the club, having made a slow start in the Premier League and seemingly set to exit the Champions League at the group stage. Liverpool went into their final fixture needing to beat Olympiacos - and if the Greek giants scored the Reds would have to win by two clear goals to qualify. Rivaldo’s opener, a fantastic free-kick, increased the size of the mountain Liverpool had to climb and they were still trailing at half-time. Benitez sent on Florent Sinama Pongolle and he grabbed one back, but Liverpool still needed to score twice. Neil Mellor put Liverpool in front in the game and who else but captain Steven Gerrard hammered home a sensational long-range strike to keep the Reds in the competition. Incredibly, though, there was even more drama to come for Liverpool in Europe that season…

AC MILAN 3-3 LIVERPOOL [AET], CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL, 2005

Still probably the greatest comeback in Champions League history, Liverpool came from 3-0 down at half-time against AC Milan in the miracle of Istanbul. Paolo Maldini’s first-minute goal gave Milan the ideal start and a Hernan Crespo brace seemingly secured the trophy for the Rossoneri. However, Benitez’s Reds had other ideas. “My concern was at half-time how to express what I wanted to say in English to make sure the team could understand,” said the Spaniard.

Gerrard, whose all-action second-half performance defied description, cut the deficit to raise hope and Vladimir Smicer’s long-range strike made it 3-2. Xabi Alonso astonishingly drew the scores level, tucking in the rebound after his penalty was saved. Milan should still have won it late in extra time, Jerzy Dudek somehow saving Andriy Shevchenko’s point-blank effort, and the goalkeeper was Liverpool’s hero when it came to penalties, keeping out attempts from both Andrea Pirlo and the Ukraine great following Serginho’s early miss, handing the Reds their fifth European crown.

LIVERPOOL 4-3 DORTMUND [5-4 AGG], EUROPA LEAGUE QUARTER-FINAL, 2016

Jurgen Klopp’s 2016 return to former club Dortmund saw the teams draw 1-1, with few signs of the amazing drama that was to come in the second leg. Dortmund were 2-0 up inside nine minutes and although Origi reduced the deficit, Marco Reus then added a third away goal for the visitors. Liverpool’s hopes of reaching the semi-final seemed over but Philippe Coutinho and Mamadou Sakho struck to level the tie at 3-3 on aggregate. The sensational comeback was completed in a breathtaking Anfield atmosphere by the unlikely figure of Dejan Lovren. “Everybody could see that something happened in the stadium, you could feel it, you could hear it, you could smell it,” said Klopp afterwards.

LIVERPOOL 4-0 BARCELONA [4-3 AGG] , CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMI-FINAL, 2019

Klopp hailed Trent Alexander-Arnold as a genius after his quick-thinking to deliver a right-wing corner with Barcelona off-guard allowed Origi to cap a remarkable victory. The England full-back had also supplied the ammunition for Wijnaldum to make it 2-0 on the night after 54 minutes. Only on the field due to an injury Andy Robertson picked up in a tangle with Luis Suarez, the Netherlands midfielder planted home a header from Xherdan Shaqiri’s cross 122 seconds after his first goal. Barcelona had recovered their poise in the aftermath of Origi’s seventh-minute opener but they were reeling hopelessly towards humiliation for the final half hour at a fervent Anfield.

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