NBA Superstar LeBron James Delighted After Liverpool Make It Through to the Champions League Final

• LeBron James tweeted immediately after the full-time whistle showing his delight after Liverpool made it to their third final in five years
• The Los Angeles Lakers star is both a big fan of the Reds and a part-time owner after buying some shares in April 2011
• Liverpool survive a first-half invasion from Villareal to book their ticket to the Paris final later on this month

It's fair to say to basketball star LeBron James is a big fan of Liverpool. He actually partly owns the Liverpool side after buying 2% of its shares in April 2011.

You can therefore understand his excitement when Liverpool survived a first-half scare from Villareal, to book their place in the UEFA Champions League final this season.

James took to Twitter to express his happiness after Jurgen Klopp and his charges put in a monster of a performance in the second half. Liverpool were carrying a healthy 2-0 lead from the first leg last week. The Yellow Submarines, however, scored two first-half goals through Boulaye Dia and Francis Coquelin to level the tie.

Christian Pulisic's father calls his son's situation at Chelsea sad

Football

Klopp reacted immediately by bringing in Luis Diaz at the start of the second half. This proved to be a masterstroke as the Colombian went ahead to put in a man-of-the-match performance as Liverpool completed the comeback.

The Reds capitalized on some very questionable goalkeeping from Rulli to score through Fabinho, Luis Diaz and Sadio Mane. They now head to Paris later this month to contest their third Champions League final under Jurgen Klopp.

The Los Angeles Lakers player is currently done for the season after his side failed to make it to this season’s NBA playoffs which are currently ongoing. But the news of Liverpool’s triumph will be a welcome sight for the 36-year-old.

Liverpool will now await to see who they will play in the final. Their English rivals Manchester City head to the Santiago Bernabeu tonight looking to get past the final. City have a 4-3 advantage and are angling to make it to successive finals.

Ansu Fati given rapturous welcome by Barcelona fans at Camp Nou on his return from injury

Football

Salah reveals his preferred final opponent

At the same time, Sports Brief has reported that Mo Salah prefers to meet Real Madrid in the final. The two European giants have played each other twice with the Los Blancos getting the last laugh on both occasions.

But it was the 2018 final that haunts Salah. The Egyptian had to be withdrawn early in the game after a challenge from Sergio Ramos.

Real Madrid, later on, went to win thanks to some Gareth Bale masterclass and some horrific defending from Lloris Karius. Salah wants to settle the scores.