Jurgen Klopp vows Liverpool will not under-estimate Unai Emery’s Villarreal

Jurgen Klopp has promised Liverpool will not under-estimate Champions League semi-final opponents Villarreal and their head coach Unai Emery.

Almost six years ago, in his first season at the Merseyside club, Klopp’s side led 1-0 at half-time of the Europa League final against Emery’s Sevilla in Basel but went on to lose 3-1.

It was the first – and only – time Emery has beaten Klopp, having lost four and drawn one during his time at the Arsenal helm.

Villarreal, last year’s Europa League winners, are bidding to reach their first Champions League final but Klopp insists the Reds will not make the same mistake as Juventus and Bayern Munich, who have already been dispatched by the Spanish side.

“It is a massive game,” said Klopp, who is bidding to lead Liverpool to a third final in five years. “So many coaches out there work their socks off their whole life and have no chance to be close to a semi-final so we have to enjoy it.

“There might have been a little advantage in the last two games. Maybe Juve or Bayern under-estimated them, but that will never happen to us.

“They are still a really good football team who wants to make history as well. It would be the first time they go to a final, which would be a massive thing to Villarreal, but it is to us the same importance.”

Klopp said he has not thought about the 2016 Europa League final defeat for a while but believes it was a significant moment, just seven months into his Anfield reign.

“I said it that night, I think that we would come back, without knowing we would come back, but at that moment I really thought we had a chance to come back stronger and we did,” he said.

“Would it have been anything different since then if we had we won that night? I don’t think so.

“I would