Liverpool and Villarreal meet at Anfield between mutual praise


When Villarreal came to the world from the First Division in 1998, Liverpool already had 18 Leagues and 4 European Cups. Today they will be measured face to face. The difference of the square meters of the museum will have been reduced to nothing when the Polish Szymon Marciniak whistles the start of the duel. So they will be red against yellow.

Nothing can make Villarreal complex, who pushed Juventus and Bayern Munich to the shoulder in their current European career and who already stepped on the Anfield temple in the 2016 Europa League semi-final. They had won 1-0 at El Madrigal and fell 3-0 in the second leg. Another matter is that, as a team, they face an overwhelming Liverpool, second in the Premier, and in a position to tie a poker of titles. He won the Carabao Cup, is a Cup finalist and faces the Champions League semifinal.

With all the prevention in the world, by the way. “I already had a lot of respect for Emery and for Villarreal, but now I have been able to see them properly and it is impressive,” said Jürgen Klopp, before assuring that I wouldn’t make the same mistake as Massimiliano Allegri and Julian Nagelsmann.

The 2016 benchmark

The margin of surprise that the Castellón team could take advantage of has disappeared. “Perhaps they had some advantage because Juventus and Bayern underestimated them, but that will not happen to us,” insisted the German coach, who related the imminent duel that begins this Wednesday with the experience of 2016.

In the semi-final they beat Villarreal and in the final he lost to Unai Emery, then in charge of Sevilla. “He is a coach who is obsessed with the smallest detail. He is a world-class coach and he is doing an incredible job,” Klopp said of his rival.

Emery admitted that the element of surprise is “decreased” because Liverpool respect their team. “They know that we have had two great qualifiers against two great teams,” he commented before taking the flight to England, returning the praise of his colleague.

Liverpool now have an updated and improved version: It is a team that runs very well into space, with a high intensity to recover the ball and has players with a combinative level, like Thiago, and the arrival of Luis Díaz gives them dribbling and presence inside”, he analyzed, underlining the influence of the personality of the German coach: “It is a team that has grown from the patience and leadership of its coach, it is a Liverpool like its coach, with a smile, with joy, with energy”.

Klopp will want to take advantage the anfield influence and overwhelm Villarreal with the same spirit with which they face any opponent. It is a hallmark of Liverpool, in the same way that Emery will try to leave the tie alive for the second leg. As it happened in Villarreal’s only semifinal of the Champions League. They succumbed to Arsenal 1-0 and were able to level the tie in the 85th minute of the second leg, but Juan Román Riquelme missed a penalty.

Gerard’s loss

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Gerard Moreno is a sensitive loss from the Castellón team. The unknown is to see if Emery will choose Chukwueze, the hero of Munich, to keep the same scheme, or will opt for a player like Manu Trigueros to protect more midfield.

Jordan Henderson acknowledged having spoken with Alberto Moreno, his former teammate at Liverpool in the 2016 defeat, rival now. «I remember going to the hotel room to go to sleep immediately and that Klopp gathered us and we spent the night together. I knew that something good, special, was going to happen. We had lost a final, but the coach was thinking long-term,” Henderson recalled.


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