LIVERPOOL, April 25, 2018 - On Wednesday 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. 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. 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. 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. Paul Parker says that, with all the hype about Liverpool's Mo Salah, we must not forget about his unselfish team-mate, Roberto Firmino... When you look at Liverpool, with Mohamed Salah scoring a huge amount of goals, of course it makes a huge difference. It doesn't matter how a player performs in general, if they score a goal their rating improves automatically by 50 per cent. Best player on the planet Mohamed Salah was hailed as 'the best player on the planet' after his extraordinary performance put Liverpool on the brink of the Champions League final. Steven Gerrard, the last Liverpool captain to lift the European Cup in 2005, led the praise on BT Sport for the newly-crowned PFA Player of the Year, who scored twice and provided the assists for two further goals as Jurgen Klopp side's built up a remarkable 5-2 first leg lead against Roma. Salah's total for the season is now 43 and he is within touching distance of breaking Ian Rush's club record for a campaign, set in 1983-84, of 47. His odds to win the Ballon d'Or were slashed by bookmakers and Gerrard did not leave any ambiguity about his feelings. Jurgen Klopp was a little more circumspect but could not hide his admiration for Salah, saying: 'In that shape, he is outstandingly good. He is pretty hard to defend against. I like the other boys (in my team) of course but the first goal is a genius strike. He's scored a few like this already this season.
