Two goals in two minutes undid Villarreal boss Unai Emery’s
defensive game plan as Pervis Estupinan deflected Jordan Henderson’s cross into
his own net before Sadio Mane slotted in a second.
The Reds remain on course for an unprecedented quadruple of
Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, and League Cup.
And barring a huge upset when the sides meet again in
southern Spain in six days’ time, Liverpool’s season will finish in Paris on
May 28.
The population of Villarreal would fit inside Anfield but
the 3,000 travelling support did their best to match the noise of the home
support early on.
In stark contrast to the free-flowing thrills of Manchester
City’s 4-3 win over Real Madrid in the other semi-final on Tuesday, Emery’s men
followed the same tactic that saw them past Juventus and Bayern Munich by
retreating behind the ball.
However, the Yellow Submarine could barely lay a glove on
Jurgen Klopp’s men as Liverpool just had to bide their time to make their
dominance count.
The Reds have now scored 135 goals this season but were held
scoreless in a frustrating first 45 minutes.
Mane headed wide Mohamed Salah’s pinpoint cross with the
best opening.
The Senegalese also saw a deflected effort fly just wide and
Villarreal goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli escaped unpunished with some sloppy
handling from a number of speculative efforts.
Another long-range strike was the closest Liverpool came to
breaking the deadlock before the break as Thiago Alcantara’s sweet strike
clipped the post.
The six-time European champions started the second half at a
higher tempo and quickly began to punch holes in Villarreal’s rearguard.
Fabinho’s goal was ruled out for offside against Virgil van
Dijk in the build-up.
Moments later, Anfield erupted as the error-prone Rulli
finally cost the Spaniards with a feeble attempt at parrying Henderson’s
deflected cross.
The last thing the visitors could afford was the floodgates
opening, but they were powerless to stop the waves of Liverpool attacks.
Salah was the architect with a perfectly weighted pass for
Mane to prod past Rulli on 55 minutes.
The offside flag came to Villarreal’s rescue once more to
rule out Andy Robertson’s strike.
Emery was hailed the “king of the cups” by Klopp for his
stunning Europa League record, with one of his four triumphs in that
competition coming as Sevilla boss against the German during his first season at
Liverpool in 2016.
However, Liverpool are a different beast six years on and
the limitations of a side sitting seventh in La Liga were shown up as they
struggled to mount any sort of response to going behind.
Luis Diaz smashed across the face of goal as Liverpool
threatened to kill the tie off with a third.
The English giants had to settle for a two-goal advantage,
but they are yet to lose by a two-goal margin in 55 matches this season.
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