Liverpool 5-2 AS Roma: 3 key battles that decided the game

#3 Edin Dzeko vs Virgil van Dijk and Dejan Lovren

Edin Dzeko was the chief architect of Roma's dramatic change of fortunes in the closing minutes

A lot rested on Liverpool's centre-back combination going into the match, as they had to come up against one of the best headers of the ball in the modern game and Liverpool's weakness in set-pieces was what Roma would have looked to exploit.

While they succeeded for the most part, it is hard not to think that Dzeko did get the best of them when the final whistle was blown. After Dejan Lovren's mistake where he failed to head the ball away, the ball landed kindly at Dzeko's feet and he opened the scoring for the visitors with a sharp finish to the near post.

This is precisely the reason why the tie is still far from over despite a 3 goal deficit - Liverpool's unfortunate knack to self-implode in defence and Edin Dzeko's uncanny knack of scoring when needed.

AS Roma started the match very well, even going on to dominate the first 20 odd minutes of the game before Liverpool took control. Roma also managed to finish the game very well in the final 10 minutes.

Dzeko vs Van Dijk and Lovren - stats

Any chance of a miracle in the second leg will depend on them counting on the man who made it possible - Edin Dzeko. That and hoping Liverpool slip into one of their defensive error modes.