UCLThe lowdown on the Yellow Submarine awaiting LFC in the semis
With Liverpool set to take on Villarreal in the Champions League last four, read our lowdown on the side the Reds will have to overcome if they are to make a third appearance in the final under Jürgen Klopp.
How they got here
The 2020-21 Europa League winners progressed to the knockout stages of this season’s Champions League by finishing runners-up in a group containing Atalanta, Manchester United and Young Boys.
Having collected just one point from their opening two fixtures, back-to-back wins over the latter boosted Villarreal’s hopes of gaining a qualification position.
In the end, it came down to a final matchday decider – and an impressive 3-2 win away at Atalanta sent Unai Emery’s squad into the last 16 for a meeting with Juventus.
The Yellow Submarine fell behind less than a minute into the tie but rescued a 1-1 draw in the home leg through Daniel Parejo’s goal.
And Villarreal then produced one of the results of the tournament this term as three unanswered goals from the 78th minute onwards earned a 3-0 victory in Turin.
Onto the quarter-finals, they edged narrowly ahead of Bayern Munich in Spain courtesy of an eighth-minute Arnaut Danjuma effort that set up an intriguing return tie.
Robert Lewandowski levelled the contest early in the second half of Tuesday night’s reverse encounter but, having denied Bayern another, Villarreal booked a place in the semi-finals when substitute Samu Chukwueze nudged in a finish on 88 minutes.
The manager
Emery took up a new challenge with Villarreal in the summer of 2020, his first managerial role following an 18-month spell with Arsenal that had ended the previous November.
To date, he and the club have been a perfect match, with his debut campaign in the dugout concluding in Europa League glory as they defeated Manchester United on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the Gdansk showpiece.
The Spaniard guided his club to a seventh-placed finish in La Liga last season and has them currently sitting in the same position in the table.
Emery was at the helm of the Sevilla side that defeated Liverpool in the 2016 Europa League final, the third consecutive triumph in the competition for coach and club.
Familiar faces
The Villarreal squad includes a number of players who have been with Premier League clubs previously, including the likes of Serge Aurier, Juan Foyth, Etienne Capoue, Francis Coquelin and Giovani Lo Celso.
The name that will immediately jump out to Reds fans, however, is that of Alberto Moreno, the left-back who moved to the Yellow Submarine after leaving Liverpool in 2019.
But Moreno will not be able to face his former team on this occasion as he is currently sidelined with an ACL injury to his right knee that was operated on last month.
One to watch
Villarreal swooped to recruit Danjuma from Bournemouth last August after the Netherlands international had scored 17 goals in 35 Championship appearances in 2020-21.
And the attacker has continued to elevate his game since arriving in Spain, helping himself to 14 goals in all competitions – including half-a-dozen in the Champions League.
Danjuma provided a crucial brace in the decisive group-stage win at Atalanta, wrapped up the victory at Juventus from the penalty spot, and netted instinctively to beat Bayern in the quarter-final first leg.
The stadium
The La Liga outfit play their home fixtures at Estadio de la Ceramica, formerly known as El Madrigal.
Tucked just in from the east coast of Spain, the 23,500-capacity venue was opened in 1923 and given its current moniker by the club five years ago.
Emery’s charges are on an 11-game unbeaten run on their own turf, since losing to Manchester United and then Barcelona in the same week in late November.
Previous meetings
The Reds and the Yellow Submarine have played just two competitive matches previously.
They came when the sides were paired together for a two-legged semi-final in the 2015-16 Europa League at the final stages of Klopp’s first season as manager on Merseyside.
Liverpool fell to a 1-0 defeat in the first meeting, Adrian Lopez pouncing in the 90th minute in Spain, but – backed by the Anfield atmosphere – turned the scoreline around emphatically to advance to the final.
After a Bruno Soriano own goal levelled the tie early on in L4, Daniel Sturridge and Adam Lallana netted in the second half to secure a 3-1 aggregate success for Klopp’s team.
2016: Liverpool 3-0 Villarreal
What they said
“We can dream. It’s very difficult but we are doing our way. When we were here before the match, we were speaking that we are not here to have a good match here but after to lose and ‘OK, we achieved the quarter-finals, we can be happy.’ No. We have to be ambitious and we have to be very competitive in our mind to achieve, or to try to achieve, the semi-final. And all we thought before the match was to play the semi-finals.” – Emery after Tuesday’s match in Munich
“It’s unbelievable, it’s taken a lot of hard work. Our victories are as a team. We have suffered a lot in both games, but to be in the semi-finals is great for Villarreal. We knew it was going to be a long 90 minutes and we were going to suffer a lot.” – Raul Albiol on beating Bayern