UEFA Champions League
Champions of Europe
Mo Salah's penalty
The 2019 UEFA Champions League final was less than 30 seconds old when Sadio Mane received a pass from Jordan Henderson on the edge of the box. He tried to cross it to the far post, but Tottenham Hotspur FC midfielder Moussa Sissoko blocked the ball with his raised arm. Penalty to Liverpool FC, approved by VAR. Mo Salah stepped up to the penalty spot. Could he keep his nerve? The Egyptian King struck the ball almost straight down the middle and, although it wasn't the cleanest penalty he'd ever taken, it flew over Hugo Lloris into the net. 1-0 to the Reds!
Divock Origi's clincher
Liverpool FC still led by one goal as the clock ticked into the final 20 minutes, but Spurs were pushing for an equaliser. Alisson denied Deli Alli, Lucas Moura and Christian Eriksen. Heung-Min Son tried to run past Virgil van Dijk. He couldn't. There was no way through. With three minutes to play, the Reds forced a corner. James Milner swung it in, Jan Vertonghen failed to clear and Joel Matip slipped the ball to Divock Origi. He touched the ball with his right foot then took aim with his left. BOOM! Liverpool FC 2. Tottenham Hotspur FC 0. The celebrations were wild and even wilder when the full-time whistle blew.
Jordan Henderson's trophy lift
With a podium placed in the centre of the Estadio Metropolitano pitch, the Liverpool FC players walked forward one-by-one to collect their UEFA Champions League winners' medals, wearing them around their necks. Then they waited for captain Jordan Henderson. He received the European Cup from the UEFA President, kissed it and walked towards his team-mates. Then, to create some drama, he crouched down, shuffled his feet on the spot as the rest of the LFC squad waved their arms in anticipation before raising the European Cup high into the air as red ticker-tape and fireworks were set off. Liverpool FC were Champions of Europe. What a moment!
Lifting Jürgen Klopp
It wasn't just the European Cup that the Liverpool FC players lifted in Madrid. The celebrations in front of the travelling Kop went on for ages and while Jürgen Klopp prefers his players to get praise from the fans, they weren't going to let the boss miss out. Led by Dejan Lovren and a few others, the players grabbed the Liverpool FC manager, raised him above their heads and threw him into the air four times to huge cheers from the LFC supporters in the stands. Klopp loved it and responded by doing one of his famous fist-pumps, just as soon as the players had put him down!
The Homecoming
The open-top bus that Liverpool FC paraded the European Cup on set off from Allerton Maze at 4pm on the day after the UEFA Champions League final. It's normally a 20 minute drive to Liverpool's historic waterfront, but so many LFC fans were on the streets to welcome the European champions home that this time it took three hours! An estimated 750,000 Liverpool FC supporters flooded the streets to celebrate the Redmen's achievement, many of them waiting for several hours just to catch a glimpse of Jürgen Klopp, his players and the iconic trophy. The scenes when red fireworks were let off from the top of the Liver Buildings, as the bus passed through the massed ranks of Liverpool FC followers were nothing short of epic. The European Cup had come home.
The Champions Wall
When anyone walks through the front entrance of Liverpool FC's Melwood training HQ they see The Champions Wall. It features each of the major trophies the Club has won – League Title, European Cup/UEFA Champions League, FA Cup, UEFA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Super Cup – with the number of times each trophy has been won listed underneath. Since the wall was created when Melwood was last refurbished a number 5 had been underneath the European Cup/UEFA Champions League trophy, but six days after the glory of Madrid the 5 was updated to a 6. “Every day we go into Melwood and see that number five on the board,” said James Milner after the 2-0 win against Tottenham Hotspur FC. “They'll need to get someone in to change it to a number six and that's massive. We're making our own history.”
