'People at home are gripping their armrests and screaming 'Hit it'. But you saw what Salah did'

For all true red-bloods, the ghosts of Istanbul are alive and well and all around these days, as Liverpool prepare to take on Roma with a Champions League final place at stake.

Club legend Michael Owen is no exception, even if back in 2005 the then Real Madrid man could only look on helplessly but with mounting excitement and euphoria — tinged with a nagging personal sense of what might have been — as Liverpool famously overcame a 3-0 deficit to beat AC Milan in that unforgettable decider.

“I was in my lounge watching it in Madrid,” he recalled yesterday on a visit to Dublin. “It was a total mix of feelings for me. Disbelief, definitely. But also thinking, ‘Jeez, that could have been me’, having only left that season. So there was almost regret in a way but also you’re really pleased for your big mates, like Carra and Stevie Gerrard. So it was a strange feeling.”