LIVERPOOL, England — In those last, fretful minutes in Rome, when every second felt like an age and the final whistle seemed as though it would never come, Liverpool’s fans sang to stave off the nerves.
It was ritual, distraction and prayer: They started with “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” the club’s hymn, switched to “The Fields of Anfield Road” and then, finally, sang, “We Shall Not Be Moved.”
When the game ended, when A.S. Roma had fallen just short, there was a moment of something close to silence: as if everyone were checking the math, making sure Liverpool really had beaten its host, 7-6 on aggregate, and had reached its first Champions League final in more than a decade.