Leon Wobschall - Liverpool were always going to stun Barcelona at Anfield, just ask Arsene Wenger

At the height of his powers, Wenger was a coach of utter technical precision who left nothing to chance. A managerial tour de force widely recognised as the person who modernised the Premier League and changed the face of English football with his emphasis on science, diet and forensic attention to the little details. Every detail.

He also shrewdly knew that technique and new-school thinking and planning counts for nothing when you enter the old-school bearpit of Anfield for the second leg of a knock-out Champions League tie.

Not even a 3-0 first-leg lead from the first leg for the self-styled best team on earth either in Barcelona. Lionel Messi et al.

Speaking ahead of the first instalment at the Camp Nou in his role as a media pundit with beIN Sports, he sagely said: "Liverpool has another asset that comes out, because let's not forget that Liverpool did not win the Championship for 30 years, but in Europe they do well. Why? Anfield.

"A home game. This is the most heated stadium in Europe. In the return leg, the only place you don't want to go is to Anfield."

If you had asked Wenger for this thoughts after the first game in Catalonia, you could have placed a few Euros on him saying exactly the same thing. Arsene knew.

Anfield possesses a magical quintessence of something that just works when it comes to knock-out European nights - no matter who the venerated opponents may be or individual.

It always has done and always will do. It should come with a patent like the secret ingredient for Coca-Cola.

Come to L4 with complacency and you leave yourself exposed to the Kop and as vulnerable as a herd of zebras crossing a crocodile-infested river in Africa.

And by the end on Tuesday night, all the old favourites were belted out: 'Show them the way to go home, I'm tired and I wanna go to bed' and 'We Shall Not Be Moved'.

Merseyside have always enjoyed sticking two fingers up to the establishment and perceived convention and in the sporting realm, Liverpool FC's reputation truly precedes them.

Saint-Etienne and Olympiakos and of course 'the Miracle of Istanbul'. And now Tuesday's events, which have perhaps surpassed the lot and done European football a huge service in the process.

Two months ago, we saw Real Madrid bow out to the classy new kids on the block from Ajax at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Here were well-fed Spanish hosts growing bloated, old and guilty of admiring their reflection in the mirror too much, when they are not 25 anymore.

The same can be said of Barcelona. They may perpetually play the 'people-versus-the-establishment' 'Mes Que Un Club' card when they face Madrid. But here are two top-brass sides whose dynasties are ending after gorging for a fair while.

They are still capable of throwing the odd party and will come again, but for the time being, the virile power is in the nimble, athletes legs of Liverpool and Ajax.

Last night's result ensures that neither Real or Barca will reach the Champions League final for the first time in six years.

This year's showpiece on June 1, at Atletico Madrid's Wanda Metropolitano Stadium Madrid, will host no Spanish side - the first occasion that has happened since 2013.

It will be one that most of Spain - certainly away from Barcelona and Madrid - will embrace too.

Arsene knew.