As you may be aware, Liverpool thrashed Barcelona 4-0 at Anfield in the Champions League last season to overturn a 3-0 deficit, before going on the lift the most sought after trophy in European football.
The stadium was absolutely rocking, we’d seen nights like it before but this one felt as special as any other, the players serenaded the Kop with ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ after the full-time whistle had gone.
It was an unreal night – and one that Joel Matip will never forget. The Cameroonian has a little story from that evening involving a certain Lionel Messi.
Speaking about the scenes after the game, the big centre-half told 11Freunde: “I didn’t care about anything, singing with the fans made me float.
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The Liverpool man was asked to do a undergo a routine UEFA drugs test after the game and has explained how surreal it was to bump into Messi. “When I came into the small room, there was a pretty depressed guy … Lionel Messi,” he said.
“You know each other but only from the pitch, you don’t sit around with [him] every day in a small room like at a coffee party. Everyone is celebrating and I’m sitting in a cubicle with Messi!”
I wonder if the Argentina icon thought something similar – ‘we’ve just been slaughtered, and I’m sat here with Matip about to urinate into a cup’ – maybe one day he’ll mention it in a book.
Joking aside, it’s quite clearly a night Joel will never forget as he likened it to making his debut for Schalke.
“After the game, we lined up arm in arm in front of the Kop together with the fans,” he added. “We sung You’ll Never Walk Alone. That was one of the most beautiful moments in my career, maybe on the same level as my debut for Schalke.“