Kop that! Liverpool ready for new era

Fuelled by Mohamed Salah's astonishing feats and inspired by Jurgen Klopp's tactical mastery, Liverpool are ready to launch a new golden era after sealing their return to the Champions League final.

For the first time in 11 years, Liverpool have reached the showpiece of Europe's elite club competition as a dramatic 4-2 defeat against Roma in Wednesday's semi-final second leg clinched an incredible 7-6 aggregate success.

Rome was the perfect setting for Liverpool's return to splendour after the Eternal City played host to the club's 1977 and 1984 European Cup triumphs.

If Liverpool beat holders Real Madrid in the final in Kiev on May 26, they will celebrate the first silverware of Jurgen Klopp's three-year reign on the grandest stage of all.

For Klopp, getting his hands on the Champions League trophy would be concrete proof his Red revolution has been worth all the blood, sweat and tears.

And it would be fitting for the 50-year-old German to enjoy a breakthrough moment at the same age as the godfather of the modern Liverpool.

Bill Shankly was also 50 when the first truly iconic manager in Liverpool's illustrious history served notice he had created a burgeoning dynasty on Merseyside.

Under the Scottish manager, Liverpool became English champions in 1964 after a 17-year gap.

Liverpool won the title three times under Shankly and also collected two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup — the club's first European trophy — as his magnetic personality and fierce will to win fulfilled his dream of turning the club into "a bastion of invincibility".

Building on the foundations put in place by Shankly, Liverpool went on to dominate Europe for the next decade.