Both Mamadou Sakho and Dejan Lovren reflected on Liverpool‘s stunning Europa League victory over Borussia Dortmund at Anfield tonight, with the former admitting that the home side played with “heart” to get the result.
In a game that will likely be talked about on Merseyside for years to come, Dortmund stormed into a two-goal lead after eight minutes thanks to Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, giving the German giants a seemingly commanding 3-1 aggregate advantage.
Divock Origi gave the Reds hope by halving the deficit on the night with a cool finish in the second half, but Marco Reus restored Dortmund’s two-goal advantage not long after. At that point the tie really did seem lost, but Liverpool came back again through Philippe Coutinho nine minutes later.
What followed then was simply unthinkable, as Sakho equalised on the night and on aggregate with 13 minutes remaining, meaning the Reds needed one more goal to seal victory. After piling on the pressure, the Dortmund defence cracked in stoppage-time, with Lovren powering home a header to send Anfield into delirium.
Jurgen Klopp’s men are now in the semi-finals of the competition, with a real chance of winning it after knocking out the favourites.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Lovren told BT Sport. “It’s one of the best games in the last two or three years.
We never stopped believing in ourselves. It is a great effort from everyone. We didn’t expect we would start like we did.”
Sakho then interjected, adding: “The most important thing was the team played with heart and the fans never leave us. It’s a win for the Liverpool country.”
The Reds remain unbeaten in the Europa League this season, and will now await the semi-final draw tomorrow morning, where they will face one of Shakhtar Donetsk, Villarreal or Sevilla.
After the euphoria of last night, next up for Liverpool is a trip to Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon, followed by the Merseyside derby at Anfield next week.
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