Liverpool through to Europa League final
Jurgen Klopp’s club pulls off high-octane 3-0 victory over Villareal, ready to face Sevilla
— The great heavy-metal football exponent from Germany who has transformed Liverpool into a thrilling cup side in the space of just seven months, is just one Europa League final from lifting some heavy metal of his own.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool club is in the Europa League final and they did so having staged the Anfield Comeback II on Thursday, another pulsating victory where the initiative was seized, the pressure applied and the noise and emotion of the ground harnessed in formidable style.
First Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-finals, now Villarreal, both dispatched in a fierce Anfield atmosphere and a classically Kloppist high-octane press.
For all their inconsistencies over the league season, this was a magnificent performance from Klopp’s team, not least the Brazilian Roberto Firmino, who was the best player on the night.
Klopp selected Daniel Sturridge for the first time in the last four Europa League games and the Englishman rewarded his manager with the critical second goal that changed the course of the tie. There were other big performances too, with James Milner coming to the fore and Nathaniel Clyne demonstrating why he should be England’s first-choice right-back at Euro 2016.
Villarreal ended the 3-0 loss with 10 men, their centre-half Victor Ruiz dismissed for a second yellow, and the club that still seeks its first major trophy just went to pieces. An own goal from Bruno Soriano on seven minutes, a late third from Adam Lallana and the team in yellow was just waiting for the final whistle.
The 11th European final in Liverpool’s history will be against Sevilla, who eliminated Shakhtar Donetsk in the other semifinal and is currently seventh in La Liga, three places and 12 points behind Villarreal. However, they are the winners of this competition for the past two seasons and Klopp’s side will face a very good cup team if they are to win the eighth European trophy in their history.
The crowd was certainly intent on making it a big Anfield night and the emotion of the first home game since the unlawful killing ruling from the Hillsborough inquest fed that mood, but in the end it required the players to generate the pressure that would unsettle Villarreal. Klopp’s team did that brilliantly at times, an exhausting, lung-bursting full-press that made you wonder how long they could keep it up.
They got better at that over the course of the first half, although it was Villarreal who had the best early chance with just five minutes played. It would have changed the mood if the right-back Mario Gaspar had got an away goal with his early shot, but that was saved by Simon Mignolet and within two further minutes, Liverpool had the lead.
The goal came from down the right where Clyne tried to overlap all half, set free by Emre Can’s tendency to drop in between the two centrehalves when Liverpool was in possession. Clyne’s cross was pushed away by Alphonse Areola but Firmino got it back into the penalty area. Sturridge tried to get the ball over the line but it was Bruno who had the final touch.
A messy goal but one which saw Villarreal buckle under the strain of the numbers that Klopp’s side managed to get into the away side’s final third of the field.
There were times when they forced more mistakes from Villarreal but they could never get the decisive touch in the penalty area, especially with Sturridge’s reluctance to attack the back post.
For the most part, this looked like a Klopp team working the way Klopp wanted them to, with a fierce press from the front led by the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Lallana and Firmino but underpinned by another relentless shift from Milner. He refused to come off after one heavy blow and just kept going until, it seemed, the pain faded.