Jurgen Klopp praises ‘world class’ Unai Emery but says Liverpool won’t repeat Bayern Munich’s mistake against Villarreal

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has praised counterpart Unai Emery and his Villarreal team ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final first-leg clash and insists the Merseysiders will not be taking their opponents lightly.

The Carabao Cup winners might have expected to be facing Bayern Munich at this stage of the competition but the Bavarians were stunned in the quarter-final by last year’s Europa League winners Villarreal, who won 2-1 on aggregate.

Even though the Spanish side are only seventh in La Liga, Klopp believes they are an excellent team perfectly suited to European football and will not allow his Liverpool side to become complacent – something both Bayern and last-16 victims Juventus may have been guilty of.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Klopp said: ‘Of course we did the proper analysing. I had a lot of respect for Unai Emery and Villarreal before, because I saw the games obviously – but only with one eye against Bayern, Juve a little bit.

‘Meanwhile, I watched them properly and… wow! Impressive. Unai is obviously – or at least it looks like it when you watch his team – a detail-obsessed manager who prepares for all different situations in a game and that’s what his teams execute.

‘It’s really, really good. Different ways to build-up, different ways to press, different ways to react on different results. Really, really impressive.

‘And obviously Unai is a world-class coach and is doing an incredible job there.

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