When Barcelona took to the field against Bayern Munich on Friday night for their Champions League quarter-final, perhaps the ghosts of Roma and Liverpool were still in the backs of their minds.
How else do you explain a capitulation to the extent where eight goals are conceded?
Fans of the Reds believe they know the answer, and it lies in the Catalans 4-0 humiliation at Anfield just over a year ago.
On that occasion, Jurgen Klopp’s side had miraculously come back from a 3-0 first-leg defeat at the Camp Nou, with Barcelona not having any answer to Liverpool’s dogged and sharp pressing game.
In fact, their performance wasn’t too dissimilar to Bayern Munich’s in that the Bavarians didn’t allow the Blaugranes to settle at any point and consistently pegged them back, taking every chance when it fell to one of their players.
Even Philippe Coutinho, who signed for Barcelona from Liverpool, scored two of Bayern’s eight, and Reds fans couldn’t resist taking to social media to point out that Klopp’s side were still living in Barcelona players’ heads.
This goal destroyed Barcelona. pic.twitter.com/GCMignJzcG
— Scouser Chris (@ScouserChrisLFC) August 14, 2020
Liverpool Football Club broke Barcelona. Seriously.
— indykaila News (@indykaila) August 14, 2020
Liverpool Football Club broke Barcelona.
— Anfield Watch (@AnfieldWatch) August 14, 2020
Never forget how liverpool disrespected Barcelona like that?? https://t.co/Ex1aMXdVqB
— Aymen? (@Aymanthekastoe) August 14, 2020
Liverpool absolutely broke Barcelona ?? love to see it
— Mo Ziyaad (@ziyaadofficial_) August 14, 2020