The Warm-Up: Liverpool give Roma hope; Mo Salah for Ballon d’Or?

ByAlex Chick

Updated 25/04/2018 at 07:28 GMT

Plus: More World Cup woe for England and Ruud van Nistelrooy really was excellent.

Liverpool's Sadio Mane celebrates scoring their third goal with Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino

Image credit: Reuters

WEDNESDAY'S BIG STORIES

Liverpool – a real Ant & Dec team

A Christmas cracker joke: When is a semi-final not a semi-final? When it’s ajar.

Champions League

Nothing personal in Bayern clash for Liverpool's Klopp

18/02/2019 at 13:55

Last night a thrillingly brilliant Liverpool side met an astoundingly awful Roma one. Jurgen Klopp’s men raced into a 5-0 lead – at which point it genuinely looked like they might hit double figures.

Yet Liverpool paid the price for the manic intensity of the first hour – and for having Dejan Lovren – and gifted Roma two late goals.

This has been a year of big Champions League comebacks, and at 5-2 Roma need only to repeat their 3-0 home shellacking of Barcelona to reach the final.

In the words of our MBMer Daniel Harris: "Liverpool worked them out, ravaged and savaged them, put the tie to bed, and then allowed it downstairs for milk and biscuits."

Of course, it’s hard to overlook the part where Roma were astoundingly awful (whereas they played creditably in their 4-1 loss at Barcelona). A clean sheet in the home leg seems about as likely as James Milner setting a Champions League assists record.

Oh.

Liverpool should be fine, but you just never know.

We need a more modern phrase to describe Liverpool’s unpredictability – Jekyll and Hyde originate from a book written 132 years ago, while the curate’s egg comes from an unfunny cartoon of 1895.

A more current reference for something that’s both good and bad? Let’s just call them an Ant & Dec team; generally excellent with the capacity for things to go horribly wrong - albeit less likely to drunkenly plough into oncoming traffic (although, Roberto Firmino...).

Ballon d’Or: Salah has the big Mo

What with it being nearly the end of April, the buzz continues to grow for Salah to win the Ballon d’Or; this being an award supposedly governed by the calendar year but generally decided some time in May, or possibly early July in a World Cup year.

The World Cup could be an issue unless Egypt have a good run, though mediocre tournaments didn’t stop Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo winning in 2010 and 2014.

Salah is now second favourite behind Ronaldo, and certainly has all the mo-mentum (geddit?) right now.

Of course Salah, objectively, isn’t as good an all-round player as Messi. He’s incredible, deadly and exhilarating, but he doesn’t have the touch, vision or passing range to come close to Messi.

Equally, it absolutely doesn’t matter.

Once upon a time, the Ballon d’Or wasn’t about who got a 94 on FIFA and who a 93. If it had been, Michael Owen wouldn’t have won as many times as Zinedine Zidane.

It was just about the player who had the best year.

The Messi-Ronaldo era is notable both for the pair’s intergalactic standard, and for the lack of standout challengers to the duopoly.

Franck Ribery in 2013 was the closest anyone came to an upset, while if you had a do-over you’d probably give 2010 to Andres Iniesta not Messi - France Football certainly would (note: Messi scored 60 goals in 2010).

But this time, Salah might just have it. Like Liverpool, he’s not perfect. But he’s irresistible, often unstoppable and always enormous fun to watch. All he needs to clinch it is to win the Champions League and guide Egypt to the last four in Russia. Easy.

Oxlade-Chamberlain injury blow

Speaking of the World Cup, more bad news for England. Having seen his best player mentally destroyed through sheer weight of banter, Gareth Southgate has lost his most in-form midfielder with a knee injury.

It’s horrible luck for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who was enjoying the best spell of his career. Any silver linings? Only if you really like watching Jake Livermore play tournament football.

Liverpool's English midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain reacts after picking up an injury during the UEFA Champions League first leg semi-final football match between Liverpool and Roma at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, north west England on April 24, 2018

Image credit: Getty Images

IN OTHER NEWS

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And this.

HEROES AND ZEROES

Heroes: Blackburn Rovers

Well done Blackburn on winning promotion back to the Championship at the first attempt. And full credit to the owners, Venky’s London Ltd... OK, let’s not go overboard.

Zero: Muted celebrations

Roma are the third former club Salah has scored against, after Fiorentina and Chelsea – he just needs Basel and El Mokawloon to complete the #sorrynotsorry set.