Liverpool twice came from two goals down to book their place in the semi-finals of the Europa League with a thrilling 4-3 victory over Borussia Dortmund this evening.
The Reds found themselves two goals down inside 10 minutes, but fought back and eventually sealed the win in stoppage time to cap off one of the great European nights at Anfield.
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The crackling Anfield atmosphere was dampened after just five minutes when the visitors opened the scoring on the night, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan sweeping a rebound in after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's effort had been saved by Simon Mignolet.
Aubameyang had already sent one curling effort wide of the target before that goal, but he wouldn't have to wait much longer to get his own name on the scoresheet as Dortmund took the game away from their hosts inside 10 minutes.
It came on the break as Marco Reus split the defence with an inch-perfect through-ball for Aubameyang to race on to, and the striker lashed his finish into the near top corner to take his tally for the season to 37 in all competitions.
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A shell-shocked Liverpool slowly began to recover from their nightmare start, and Divock Origi, Alberto Moreno and Adam Lallana all failed to make the most of half-chances in quick succession.
It would prove to be a feature of the half as the hosts searched for the first of the three goals needed to progress, with Origi coming close with a near-post flick before Roberto Firmino couldn't steer his stooping header on target.
All the while Dortmund continued to threaten on the counter-attack, and it took an important hand from Mignolet to deny Aubameyang a certain goal when he diverted Lukasz Piszczek's cross away from the unmarked striker.
Aubameyang continued to provide the visitors' main threat and sent another half-chance wide with 10 minutes to go in the half, before Philippe Coutinho and Origi failed to hit the target from inside the area.
Despite creating a number of openings, Liverpool failed to have a single shot on target in the first half, but that changed within three minutes of the restart as the hosts gave themselves hope with an early goal back.
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That cranked the noise levels back up in Anfield as the fans began to believe, and Origi went looking for a second shortly afterwards when he blasted a 25-yard effort over the top.
Their rekindled hopes were seemingly extinguished once again soon enough, though, as Dortmund got their third of the evening when Mats Hummels carried the ball out of defence before threading a pass inside Nathaniel Clyne for Reus, who calmly slotted his finish into the bottom corner.
It once again left Liverpool needing three goals to qualify, but the hosts refused to give in and got one of those back with just under 25 minutes remaining when Coutinho exchanged passes with James Milner before drilling a finish into the bottom corner.
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Once again the Kop responded by roaring their side on, and Origi fired one over from range before the Reds levelled things on the night to move to within one goal of victory.
Mamadou Sakho was the man to get it, stooping to nod the ball in from close range after Coutinho's corner had bounced through to the defender at the front post.
Liverpool pushed for a winner to cap a remarkable comeback, and they finally found it in the first minute of stoppage time as Dejan Lovren rose highest at the back post to plant a header past Roman Weidenfeller and send the home fans wild.
There was still work to do for the Reds, but they saw a late Ilkay Gundogan free kick fly wide of the target on their way to the semi-finals as they sealed a 5-4 aggregate victory on a special European night on Merseyside.
Barney Corkhill
