The power of Anfield exists.
It is a tangible, physical, deeply affecting thing.
And it works best in a European semi-final with a manager who knows how to harness it.
Inter Milan felt it in 1965, when Bill Shankly sent Gerry Byrne out in a sling with the FA Cup.
Forty years later so did John Terry, when Rafa Benitez was the Kop idol.
“I have never heard anything like it before and I don’t think I ever will again,” said Chelsea’s vastly experienced captain.
Robbie Fowler felt it too. The power of Anfield inspires as well as intimidates.
In a Champions League semi-final two years later Fowler said: “It was stunning, one of the loudest, most intimidating walls of pure emotional noise I have ever heard.
“People say top-class professionals are not affected by the atmosphere, but believe me, they are. Chelsea were a case in point that night.”
Barcelona became the latest team to be incinerated by the power of Anfield.
Yes, that’s the Barcelona of Messi, Suarez, Busquets and Rakitic.
Read all the reaction to Liverpool's epic victory over Barcelona HERE
The Barcelona who held a seemingly impregnable 3-0 lead from a first half in Catalonia a week ago.
And the Barcelona who knew that just a single, solitary goal from a side packed with world class goalscoring talent would have been enough to end this tie in their favour.
Klopp is the latest manager to harness that very special power.
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He restored the broken bond with a fractured fan base who once left him ‘feeling alone’ and he stoked the Anfield fires to blast furnace intensity.
He told us before kick-off his side could pull off mission impossible.
Not everyone believed. Initially ...
“There is one thing everyone inside Anfield knows, including our opponents This Liverpool never stops. This Liverpool never quits. This Liverpool gives everything at all times. Whatever happens this Liverpool leaves it all on the pitch and nothing left for regrets. We don’t do ‘If only’.”
They were only his programme notes, but reading them it was difficult not to feel a surge of hope, a frisson of inspiration, a quickening of the pulse.
And that was just the printed word.
If the Reds boss could turn doubters into believers in the notoriously cynical environs of the press box, imagine him delivering that message in person in the Anfield dressing room.
He clearly did.
Because Liverpool’s performance defied all laws of probability.
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Quite simply this was the most remarkable night’s football I’ve watched in 35 years of reporting.
And I was in Istanbul.
Roared on by their remarkable fan base Liverpool achieved the apparently impossible.
Klopp's message had clearly been absorbed by his captain.
He believed.
“We’re not just playing for pride – that’s not enough for Liverpool – we’re playing to win and reach the final,” the magnificent Jordan Henderson wrote in his own captain’s column.
Mo Salah turned up sporting a black T-shirt with the bold message “Never Give Up” emblazoned on the front.
And perhaps most importantly of all, the Liverpool fans believed.
There were no doubters inside Anfield at kick-off time. They believed and the noise they generated shook Barcelona to the core.
Luis Suarez once played in front of that wall of noise. He knew what to expect. But he was rattled.
Lionel Messi is the greatest player of his generation. He was shell-shocked.
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Barca’s cynical, streetwise defenders switched off fatally at Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cute corner kick – cauterised by the Kop wall of noise - and Divock Origi benefited decisively.
Clearly there were other factors at play – Alisson’s inspired performance, Henderson’s inspirational captaincy and Alexander Arnold’s excellence.
But most of all this was about the power of Anfield.
It exists. And it’s a powerful, powerful force.
