Andy Robertson pinpointed Jurgen Klopp's response to a humbling defeat at Barcelona as the key moment in Liverpool's run to the Champions League final.
The Reds have reached this stage for a second year running and will take on Tottenham Hotspur in Madrid on Saturday, but they were on the brink of elimination in the last four.
Klopp's men lost 3-0 at Camp Nou as Lionel Messi and Barca took control of the semifinal, only for Liverpool to bounce back with a stunning 4-0 win at Anfield.
READ | Andy Robertson: From being broke at 17 to a second successive Champions League final
Left-back Robertson suggests that victory was set in motion moments after he and his team-mates left the Barcelona pitch.
"At that stage, we felt flat, which was probably unavoidable," Robertson wrote in The Players' Tribune . "Although we were in Barcelona, Madrid couldn't have felt further away.
"Then the manager came into the dressing room, bouncing and wearing his trademark massive smile.
"'Boys, boys, boys!' he says, 'We are not the best team in the world. Now you know that. Maybe they are! Who cares? Who cares! We can still beat the best team in the world. Let's go again'.
"It might have taken me a second, or maybe the entire flight back to Liverpool to believe him, but in hindsight that was the moment that changed everything for us.
"In football, everyone always talks about belief. Every team says they had it after a comeback. But that's not the case at every club. It's just not.
"The manager, he starts it all. He lights the touch paper and then Anfield does what it does."
Robertson is prepared for a tough test against Spurs but believes Liverpool will deserve its sixth European Cup title if it finally arrives after defeat to Real Madrid 12 months ago.
READ | Klopp: This Liverpool side is best I've taken into a final
"It feels good to have another crack at this final," he said. "Nobody deserves it more than our supporters, who have backed us through the good times and the heartbreak.
"But like us, they will know that we are up against a top side in Spurs. Mauricio Pochettino and his players will be just as determined as we are to do something special in a final like this.
"The thing that matters most is that our fate is in our hands. We know that. And if there's one thing I can guarantee about this team, about this group of players, it's that we will stop at nothing to try to make our supporters' dreams come true.
"If that does happen, it won't be a fairy tale. It'll be because we deserve it."
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