Unai Emery admits Villarreal need a ‘perfect’ performance to beat Liverpool

Juventus had no idea what hit them and Bayern Munich weren’t expecting it either but Liverpool are forewarned, forearmed and not so foolish. They are also better. The Villarreal manager, Unai Emery, insists that having beaten two giants en route to the Champions League semi-final his team no longer have the element of surprise to help see them through. Instead, they must produce the “perfect” performance to defeat a Liverpool team he described as “updated and improved” – and it was “magnificent” before.

Emery was sitting on the bench when Sevilla defeated Liverpool in the 2016 Europa League final at the end of Jürgen Klopp’s first season at the club and in the stands in Madrid when they won the Champions League three years later. He has also experienced defeat at Anfield with Arsenal. Now he says he will sit at the side of the pitch at Anfield and face a team who are different again, the product of a plan and the personality of their manager, evolved into something even more complete than ever.

“We played Klopp’s team in that final in 2016 and the fact that they’re here in 2022 says a lot about patience, belief and the leadership [needed] to build a team,” Emery said. “This is the best Liverpool I’ve seen. I was there when that magnificent Liverpool won the Champions League and this year watching them, analysing them, it is better. Liverpool are in great moment, with a project that has been growing with Klopp growing for years.

“I see an updated and improved version. They have found excellence in certain players,” Emery said, offering an analysis that spoke of admiration and dismissing suggestions that Liverpool could be stopped simply by playing deep and denying them space to run into.

“A team that was characterised by