It would appear that this thrilling, unpredictable edition of the Champions League will have the final it deserves.
Over the course of four semi-final games, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Roma and Liverpool have served up 20 goals.
The fact that the two finalists scored eleven of them but were assured only of progress once the final whistles blew in Madrid and Rome tells us everything.
Liverpool dominated the tie against Roma over both legs to advance to the final
The visitors nullified the threat of their hosts and took the sting out of the game early on
So on to Kiev go Real and now Liverpool. The last time they contested the final of this competition was in 1981 when it was known rather fittingly and simply as the European Cup.
There was just one goal scored that night in Paris and it went to Liverpool. Jurgen Klopp and his players would take that this time round but frankly it is impossible to imagine this will be that kind of game.
Is it possible to lose gloriously? It has always sounded rather glib, that one. But here in Rome’s throbbing Olympic Stadium – and indeed in the Bernabeu the night before – we saw that maybe it is.
At full-time, as Roma’s players sunk to their knees in disappointment, their supporters were in no mood to leave before they had thanked them.
Eusebio Di Francesco’s team are not a great side but they showed as much courage and spirit as Liverpool will need in the final in driving their opponents all the way to the finish line like a 1500 metre runner who does not know what it means to lose.
Liverpool now have the opportunity to add a sixth Champions League to their tally
Roma are out at the death and we will certainly remember them. It is not over-stating things to say that they terrified Liverpool and their marvellous travelling supporters during a second half that Klopp’s team just could not close down.
Once Liverpool scored twice in their first half, Roma should have surrendered but they didn’t and that meant we ended up witness to a night that it will take a long time to forget.
As for Liverpool, they are through and they deserve to be. They are a better side than Roma by more than a two-leg score line that eventually stood at 7-6. But this was a game that will leave its mark on them once the adrenaline of the achievement leaves the system.
Can, for example, a player like Trent Alexander-Arnold really play in a final against a team containing somebody like Cristiano Ronaldo? After this horror show for the talented young full-back, it is hard to say so.
But Liverpool can beat Real in the Ukraine, there is no doubt about that. Liverpool, full of frailty and capriciousness as they undoubtedly are, have scored 17 times in the knock out stages of the Champions League this season and 40 times overall.
It is this that will sustain them as they attempt to dethrone the holders on May 26 and they have every reason to be optimistic.
What will Real have made of what happened here? In all likelihood, it will merely have confirmed what they already knew.
Liverpool are one of Europe’s most devastating sides on the continent and a far cry from the pragmatic, sensible bunch of players who once owned this competition in the 1970s and 1980s.
The tight-knit Reds have a great chance in the final against Real Madrid in Kiev
Real, as Bayern showed us on Tuesday, are a team shot through with genius and fallibility themselves. They will head to Kiev knowing they too can only play one way. If the final already feels like a shoot-out then that seems about right.
Liverpool did everything right here for a while and when the game stood at 1-0, 2-1 and even 2-2 it seemed inconceivable that anything could go wrong. It did go wrong, though.
It didn’t cost Klopp and his players a place in the final. Only an outright disaster would have done that. But this did go wrong, nevertheless.
There were moments in the second half when Roma were perilously close to scoring a third during a period that still saw almost 25 minutes still left on the clock. An unkind bounce of the ball on any of those instances and Liverpool could have been making a very long journey home indeed.
Young Alexander-Arnold has been brilliant at times this season. He will surely be Liverpool’s right-back for years to come. This was a dreadful night for him, though. It was a night when his impetuosity and inexperience betrayed him.
Jurgen Klopp’s side may not have put on a performance for the purists but they’re through
Real have so much class and experience but have also shown signs of fallibility
More widely, Liverpool simply fell in to the trap of failing to keep the ball well enough in the second half. As a result the game became too stretched. That was what Roma wanted, not Liverpool.
Klopp’s team have missed the steadying influence and young legs of Emre Can in their midfield. James Milner has worked manfully as a replacement but Real will look to play in and around the base of Liverpool’s midfield in the final.
Liverpool, for their part, will merely try to work the ball in the right areas. Roma had 23 attempts on goal during this game and that cannot happen again if Liverpool are to lift the trophy.
As we look ahead, though, it is this combination of sporting characteristics – both good and bad – that cannot make the coming weeks pass quickly enough. Who really wants perfection in sport anyway?
Real Madrid and Liverpool will hit and hit hard as they bring the curtain down on the season. It may turn out that their respective semi-finals have merely been an exercise in rehearsal.
Loris Karius looked like he has a mistake in him that Los Blancos could take advantage of