Villarreal honors football against Liverpool in the Champions League

PreviousLive Chronicle

Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool reached its third Champions League final in five years.

Quite a feat whose last act was performed on the most unexpected of European stages.

In Vila-real, the industrious town that has come together in the wake of happiness provided by its team, fired with a lap of honour, winning the respect of its rivals and the devotion of its people after completing a resounding match that returned to its adventurous essence.

VLLVillarreal

two

Rulli, Juan Foyth, Pau Torres, Albiol (Aurier, min. 78), Estupiñán (Trigueros, min. 78), Capoue, Coquelin (Alfonso Pedraza, min. 67), Parejo, Giovani Lo Celso, Boulaye Dia (Alcácer, min. . 79) and Gerard Moreno (Chukwueze, min. 67)

LIV Liverpool

3

Alisson, Ibrahima Konate, A. Robertson (Konstantinos Tsimikas, min. 79), Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil Van Dijk, Thiago (Curtis Jones, min. 79), Fabinho (Milner, min. 83), Naby Keita (Henderson, min. 78), Diogo Jota (Luis Díaz, min. 45), Salah and Mane

Goals

1-0 min.

2: Boulaye Dia.

2-0 min.

40: Coquelin.

2-1 min.

61: Fabinho.

2-2 min.

66: Luis Diaz.

2-3 min.

73: Man.

Referee

Danny Makkelie

Yellow cards Capoue (min. 62), Trent Alexander-Arnold (min. 76), Giovani Lo Celso (min. 80) and Pau Torres (min. 84)

Red cards Capoue (min. 84)

The red river advanced towards Levante by train and by plane.

From the first hour of Tuesday, thousands of Liverpool fans paraded through the airports and railway stations of Madrid, Valencia, Alicante and Castellón, calmly, like good citizens who are going to fulfill a tax duty.

I just missed their appearance: shorts, short-sleeved shirts, beach hats... More than fans, they looked like pensioners on their way to the Royal Caribbean cruise.

They did not foresee that in the Mediterranean the downpours were getting worse and the cold wind had blown again from the north.

Something similar happened to Liverpool, which did not come to old Madrigal prepared for the rain.

The perplexity was evident in the visitors since they stepped on the sodden grass.

Contrary to what Emery had announced the day before, against the calculating character that he instilled in his players for months, the Villarreal players completed with aplomb the most complicated journey that can be made in football.

A corkscrew somersault from football: passing the

at high pressure, hand in hand, man with man, in a foreign field, administering the ball with speed and without burning anyone's feet.

Supported by a Raúl Albiol who rose above the match like a giant, fake slow par excellence, master of body and anticipation, the team grew from a brilliant start.

The kind of entry into competition that usually leaves its mark: the first touches revealed in their precision that the night would be propitious.

The metamorphosis incorporated an existential question.

If the Villarreal squad is capable of playing attacking as it did in the first half, why has it been temporizing for a year?

Be that as it may, after three minutes of friction, Capoue, Moreno and Lo Celso made their way with short passes through late pressure from Fabinho, Thiago and Robertson.

The play ended in the right corner of the field, where Capoue exposed Robertson's poor physical condition when he faced him and crossed to the far post.

There, behind Alexander-Arnold, the other visiting side, Coquelin appeared to return the ball to the penalty spot.

Dia, the providential man, substitute for Danjuma, pushed the 1-0.

Hopelessly outraged, the 23,000 fans of the town sang their magic verse in chorus: “Yes, we can!

If possible…!".

Liverpool did not come out of their perplexity throughout the first half.

Only the referee, the polished Danny Makkelie, helped him stay afloat at the moment of greatest distress.

After half an hour, Alisson's takedown of Lo Celso had all the ingredients of a penalty, but neither the judge nor the video judge saw it that way.

After two minutes, however, Villarreal once again insisted on the route they used the most.

Elastic to move by surprise into corners where many midfielders are uncomfortable, Capoue dribbled Robertson and crossed his accomplice Coquelin, who headed it 2-0.

Two goals in two shots on goal left Liverpool on the canvas.

Based on unique duels, Villarreal had overcome the stickiest team in Europe.

The tie is even,

The first measure of the German coach was noticed as soon as the second half began: remove the overrated Jota to put in the indomitable Luis Díaz.

This substitution was enough for Liverpool to recover the energy that they had lacked in the first half.

If the midfielders were unable to create enough space for their forwards, a drum roll was in order, with the attackers manufacturing the advantage by moving into space with more emphasis.

Between the foothold offered by the Colombian, Gerard Moreno's withdrawal due to injury, and the natural tendency of this Villarreal towards jealous administration, the balance tipped slightly in favor of the visitors.

Liverpool pressed without penetrating when, at the end of the match hour, Salah freed Fabinho and the Brazilian's dry shot, any shot,

This Liverpool was never an exquisite team.

Not even Thiago's presence can allow him to live off the class.

You need to squeeze.

He lives from the collective contagion generated by constant pressure and unchecks the hole.

When he recovered his fundamentals, Villarreal found themselves in difficulties.

Percussion and crosses were enough, like the one put by Alexander-Arnold to Díaz, who headed the 2-2 on Rulli's exit.

It was a blow.

Preview of the coda, by Mané, who broke the offside before outwitting Rulli and Foyth in a fleeting trajectory.

The last goal silenced the fans and definitively disoriented Villarreal, once again lost in a tie that began by losing by accident and almost came back out of courage after a winter marked by prudence.

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