Mane the man as Reds reach Paris
Super Sadio has the final say as Liverpool hit back after a horror first half
FOR a team that doesn’t often win the away legs of Champions League semifinals, Liverpool have a remarkable knack for getting through them.
It was 1985 when Liverpool last won outside Anfield at this stage of the tournament. Mark Lawrenson scored the only goal against Panathinaikos. Yet they have now made it to six finals in that time, including this one, even if 37 years separate the wins away.
The scoreline makes it look easy yet, for close to an hour, it was anything but. Villarreal owned the first half and levelled the tie, 2-2 on aggregate. Liverpool got there in the end, though. Ripped the heart out of Villarreal with three second-half goals in 12 minutes.
By the end they were down to 10 men and utterly dispirited, Etienne Capoue dismissed for a second bookable offence, having bundled down substitute Curtis Jones.
Yet Villarreal had their moments. For much of the night the locals dared to dream, and they appreciated their team’s efforts even in defeat. Si! Se pueze! was the mood of the night, which translates as ‘Yes, we can’ and for a while Villarreal damn well did.
But Liverpool are the better team, with the better players and their performance to retrieve the match after half-time was quite fantastic. By the end, for all of Villarreal’s fight, Liverpool had furthered their first-leg advantage to a 5-2 aggregate victory.
It was impressive stuff, placed in sharper relief by the fact that Villarreal had showed they were anything but the Champions League pretenders claimed in some quarters.
Once Jurgen Klopp got to his players, and once his players woke up to the alarming weakness of their first-half performance, it was a different tie. Klopp introduced Luis Diaz, Liverpool sparked into life, the Yellow Submarines sunk. Geronimo Rulli was deeply unimpressive. They would have been better off with Hiawatha.
The first goal, the one that restored Liverpool’s aggregate lead, if not the lead on the night, came after 62 minutes, from which point Liverpool never looked back. Mo Salah drew two Villarreal defenders then slid the ball through to Fabinho. Having never scored a Champions League goal for Liverpool, he finished in some style, low through the legs of Rulli, who should have done better.
The same could be said of No2. Trent Alexander-Arnold crossed and Diaz beat Villarreal’s back line with a cute run to buy yards of space and power a header past Rulli. Again, a better goalkeeper might have kept it out.
Finally, a lofted pass from Naby Keita sent Sadio Mane haring away and out came Rulli, far from home and too timid in the tackle. He missed the ball some 30 yards from safety and Mane took it clear of danger before firmly passing it into the empty net. It was the 150th European goal of the Klopp era. What might No151 bring? We will find out soon enough.
Yet, at half-time, what a scoreline: Villarreal 2 Liverpool 0. It made a mockery of the idea Unai Emery’s team had let the side down by playing negatively at Anfield, that they were imposters in such high company. Jason Cundy — public enemy No1 out here after an impassioned denunciation of Villarreal’s tactics on talkSPORT — your presumptions took one hell of a beating.
For the best part of an hour last night, Villarreal were an entirely different proposition. Bold where they had been conservative, brave where they had been cautious. Rarely have we seen Liverpool in such trouble. Passes went astray, defensive stalwarts were vulnerable and rattled. Villarreal were not flattered by their two-goal lead.
Minutes before the second came the home crowd were howling in support of what looked a very strong penalty claim. It appeared a certainty in real time, a probability on the replay, and only repeated views made the case for goalkeeper Alisson. Fortunately for Liverpool, referee Danny Makkelie is not easily swayed by sound, or fury.
Yet Villarreal appeared inspired by all of it. They started at a tempo that will have been familiar to Liverpool. It is how they have swept teams away in this competition in the past.
Rarely is it successfully done to them. And it worked. It produced a goal in only the third minute and, suddenly, Villarreal were flying. The crowd’s dreams became fleeting reality: two goals down became just one, then none. Yes we can became: can we?
It was a goal that exposed Liverpool on both flanks. Pervis Estupinan got the better of Alexander-Arnold, hitting a deep cross that allowed Capoue to get in behind Andy Robertson, cutting the ball back for Boulaye Dia. Alisson had stumbled and the goal was unprotected. Dia made the simplest conversion, his first Champions League goal and what a time to get it.
So much of Villarreal’s best work was being done wide. Estupinan, in particular, was a threat and in the 16th minute he picked out Gerard Moreno — missing and missed at Anfield — with a lovely cross. His header was on target but vitally blocked by Robertson.
Then the controversy, Liverpool served up possession and Villarreal sped away on the counter-attack two against one. Giovani Lo Celso took the ball past the advancing Alisson before getting completely cleaned out.
Makkelie waved play on, signalling the Brazilian had got the ball. Perhaps, but he appeared to come through Lo Celso to get it. Villarreal’s players were furious, their fans too. Yet if VAR Pol Van Boekel checked, he did not require Makkelie to take a second look.
Villarreal remained incensed. And then, suddenly, jubilant. It was Capoue again, getting the better of Robertson on the right and crossing for Coquelin. He rose above Alexander-Arnold and his header powered past Alisson.
Justice done — if not for the disputed penalty, then for the performance. Villarreal had been outstanding. No shots on target for Liverpool, passing way off. Thiago Alcantara had the best completion rate, but at 73 per cent.
Yet they turned it around because that is what great teams do. And this is a great team. The first in the history of English football to reach the finals of the Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup, in doing so equalling the club record from 2000-01 of playing every match in the fixture list when the season began.
That was in Europe’s second competition, though. This is the big one. A third Champions League final in five years. ‘Are you watching, Manchester?’ the fans crowed at the end. Over in Madrid, City will have been glued, you can guarantee that.