He put a forearm to his face at the end, wiping away the tears as his joyous teammates bounced around him.
Steven Gerrard, the hero of Istanbul, perhaps the greatest player in Liverpool’s wonderful history, is four games away from ending a career-long crusade.
“Dare to dream,” read the banner on a plane flying over Anfield.
Gerrard probably gave up dreaming. He probably abandoned hope that he would become a champion of England.
Until now. Until this extraordinary, improbable title challenge. Until Liverpool acquired the sort of momentum, a sense that, despite their flaws, they were unstoppable, a feeling they have not had since Gerrard powered them to Uefa Champions League glory in 2005.
There were moments when it felt the dream was disappearing; when Manchester City rallied, producing the response of potential champions themselves; when Glen Johnson turned David Silva’s cross into his own net; when Luis Suarez looked as though his diving could bring his dismissal; when Martin Skrtel punched the ball away in his own box.
Yet a compelling story seems evermore likely to have a happy ending. Liverpool have a habit of coming out on top and a flair for the dramatic.
Philippe Coutinho’s winner immediately had the feel of one of those goals that shape a season, like Federico Macheda’s decider for Manchester United against Aston Villa in 2009 or Marc Overmars’s strike for Arsenal at Old Trafford in 1998.
The man who does not score often enough compensated in quality for the lack of quantity. But perhaps the best comparisons come from Liverpool’s past. This was a seminal Anfield moment, comparable with Gerrard’s 2004 winner against Olympiakos or Luis Garcia’s “ghost goal” against Chelsea a few months later.
This was a match where, with its twists and turns, Liverpool played havoc with their supporters’ emotions. It was reminiscent of the 2001 Uefa Cup final, or – that game again – Istanbul.
It was a performance that contained the pace, the power, the energy, the imagination and the ambition that has propelled this astonishing rise.
It contained the now-familiar, but still-spectacular, fast start, the tense ending and so much in between.
“The longest 90 minutes I have ever played in,” Gerrard said.
They were 90 minutes of incessant, unyielding drama. Liverpool’s is a rich tale containing so many stories, the heartwarming and the heartbreaking.
Jordan Henderson, the rescue act in the 4-3 win against Swansea, was sent off in added time, rightly – because his lunge at Samir Nasri deserved a red card – but cruelly, because an ever-present is now banned for three of the last four games.
Raheem Sterling, who could have been on loan at Swansea now, capped his reintegration and renaissance with a beautifully calm opener. Skrtel, surplus to requirements last summer, headed in his seventh goal of the season.
A centre-back has become a central figure. He is offering hope to the unwanted everywhere.
He rode his luck with his impromptu display of goalkeeping. Liverpool can argue that they are making their own.
Manager Brendan Rodgers’s bold, inventive tactics caught out City at the start. Sterling and Coutinho were elusive, Yaya Toure and Fernandinho outnumbered. Vincent Kompany and company were left dizzy by Liverpool’s movement.
Yet City’s comeback, the six minutes that threatened to put them in pole position in the title race, exacerbated Liverpool’s achievement as the latter recorded a 10th successive victory.
It was the biggest game of their season, some said the biggest at Anfield since 1990, and they won it.
“Probably the biggest statement we have made this far,” Gerrard said.
It was, as his reaction at the end showed, huge.
And then the emotion gave way to the task of galvanising his colleagues in a huddle on the Anfield pitch.
“We do not let this go,” he shouted.
And, with every game, it feels as though they will not.
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