The first round of the semi-finals of the most prestigious European Cup series kicked off on Tuesday, when this year’s best match of the BL season so far Manchester City beat Real Madrid 4 to 3.
In Wednesday night ‘s semi – finals a Liverpool received the Villarrealt. The Spanish band will be hosting the Champions League fairy tale this year, and to the great surprise, Unai Emery’s team has already said goodbye to Juventus and Bayern Munich in the straight relegation stage, so Jürgen Klopp’s players couldn’t expect a walk-away victory at Anfield either.
The two teams have met twice before. In the 2016 Europa League semi-final match in Spain, Villarreal won 1-0 and then reversed the duel with a 3-0 win for the Liverpool and made it to the finals. It’s a bit interesting that Viktor Kassai blew his whistle on the rematch.
Summary
Both teams were set up in the strongest possible line-up, with only one more serious missing from the guests, Gerard Moreno could not be available to his team due to injury.
The first more dangerous scenes took place in front of the Spanish Gate after two corners of Liverpool. After the corner kick Raul Albiol he cleared the ball from the goal at the last minute and then Mohamed Szalah his head missed a lot of target, so Geronimo Rulli the goalkeeper had nothing to do. By the 11th minute, Liverpool had already made their way to Salic, but Salah’s pass Sadio Mané it was extremely bad, so there was no danger to the goal, a huge opportunity was left.
Until the middle of the half, none of the teams worked out a more serious opportunity, the Villarreal defense was confident. A little later, Mohamed Salah threatened from inside the box, but the twisting of the Egyptian attacking ball left the field above the goal. Ten minutes before the end of the first half, Trent Alexander-Arnold curled the toy into the foreground of the Spanish goal, but he hit the incoming foot with Salah’s weaker foot and also missed a goal.
At that moment, the number of shooting attempts was already 12-0.
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There were only three minutes left in the first half when Thiago about 25 meters from the gate he fired a ruthless strong bomb, but his shot slammed into the crossbar. Liverpool were getting closer to scoring the leading goal.
Villarreal’s net vibrated at the beginning of the second half, after a corner Sadio Mané headed the ball back into the front, which eventually Fabinho in front of him, the Brazilian midfielder and ruthlessly bombarded the gate at close range. The only foul was in the spot.
We didn’t have to wait long for the first regular Liverpool hit:
With 52 minutes played, Jordan Henderson could have brought this one home for Rulli as he charged up on the left, but his hooked ball went just a bit too high. The Villarreal net keeper only desperately caught the ball, failing to save, 1-0.
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When a business starts! Two minutes later, Mohamed Salah passed the ball at an excellent pace mane in front of him, the Senegalese attacker only had to poke the ball into the net next to Rulli, which he did, 2–0. In an instant, Villarreal collapsed.
Twenty minutes before the end, Liverpool were lined up on a conveyor belt. First Virgil van Dijk intercepted a bomb dropped from 24 meters by Rulli, then louis diaz he tried from inside the box, but this shot was also pushed aside by the Argentine goalkeeper.
In the 78th minute, Luis Díaz was in the spotlight again, the lightning-fast Colombian winger ran down to the left this time and was in the shooting position, but his attempt slipped so far off the foot that the ball left the field of play. Interestingly, at that moment the ratio of shots to the goal was 20: 1. To Alisson, the Liverpool goalkeeper had a stress-free evening, to put it mildly.
Several more serious situations no longer developed in the match. despite initial difficulties, Liverpool could eventually travel to Spain next week with a smooth victory and a confident two-goal advantage.
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If he continues, Jürgen Klopp will be able to return to the Champions League final after winning in 2019.
CHAMPIONS’ LEAGUE
FINAL, FIRST MATCH
Final result: Liverpool (English) –Villarreal (Spanish) 2–0
Goal: Estupina (own goal, 53 minutes), Mané (55 minutes)
The rematch will be held next Tuesday.
(Cover image: Getty Images)
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