Then, in the chaotic moments directly afterwards, time seemed to pause and it was incredible that Liverpool did not have a goal to celebrate. As John Stones’s attempted clearance came back off Ederson and started looping towards an exposed net 

it felt as if the entire stadium held its breath, 

expecting it to conclude with a barely conceivable own goal. The technology showed nine-tenths of the ball had crossed the goal line 

but not, however, the final tenth. 

Stones had somehow got back to hook the ball, brilliantly,

Papa was a rolling Stones, well, well, well.


from beneath his crossbar and City were spared by a matter of millimetres.


When Liverpool’s players watch the replay of that moment they will barely comprehend how Stones’s final swing of the ball missed Salah, from point-blank range, when even the merest of touches would have resulted in a goal.

Oh sure. Ball never had a chance.