The Liver Bird  

It's 2005, I'm 15 years old, starting to really hone my obsession with Liverpool Football Club, sat in the living room of our Wolverhampton council house, waiting for the Reds to kick off in Istanbul.


Like many Liverpool fans back then I never seriously thought we would find a route to the final with that team but the magic was tangible. The Olympiakos game and that infamous Gerrard goal, Hyypia scoring against Juventus and the ghost goal at Anfield. None of those things really should have happened, but I quickly learned as a 15 year old that Liverpool in Europe are just something else.

Twenty years after reaching their last European Cup final in 1985, Rafa Benitez's Liverpool side proved they had the stamina to not only make it to the final but also come back from 3-0 down to win on penalties. At half time I had retreated to the bathroom and I'm not afraid to say, I had tears in my eyes. I was absolutely gutted, we'd worked so hard to get there and it was crumbling …

Liverpool have made it to their first Champions League final in 11 years. A competition that resonates with the L4 postcode, the Reds should never have been missing for this long. Yes, losing 4-2 isn't exactly the best way to secure your place but Klopp's side had done most of the hard work in the first leg and still managed to put two past a Roma side who hadn't conceded a single goal at home in the Champions League until Wednesday night. 
Liverpool's first goal was a lovely composed finish by Sadio Mane. Scoring after just nine minutes it was a perfect start for the Reds but it didn't quite take the wind out of the Italian's sails as they were gifted a goal off of James Milner's face shortly afterwards.  A second goal for the Reds followed at 25 minutes, this time a header from Gini Wijnaldum. He doesn't score often but he deserved the header and it was great to see how much it meant to the midfielder. 
Roma had to wait until the second half for an equal…