Villarreal’s Mission: Nigh-on Impossible against Liverpool

The legend of Liverpool has been built on glorious comebacks against foreign opposition. The list, the very long list, includes Club Brugge in 1976, Saint-Étienne in 1977, Milan in 2005, Hicks and Gillett in 2010 and Barcelona in 2019. So even though most of us think Liverpool have nine toes in the Big Cup final, they’ll be taking the square root of bugger all for granted in Villarreal. Liverpool lead 2-0 from the first leg, in which their sadistic heavy metal football came within an overzealous semitone of causing collective tinnitus among the Villarreal squad.

Unai Emery sent eight players to the Ear, Nose & Throat department at the weekend nonetheless, so Villarreal will be refreshed for Mission: Nigh-on Impossible. They are also boosted by the return of Gerard Moreno, arguably their best player, though Alberto Moreno – a thorn in Liverpool’s side over the years – is out with an ACL injury. Villarreal’s record at El Madrigal is extremely good, and Jürgen Klopp does not share the complacency that is rife among the teatime email fraternity.

“It will be tough but that’s completely fine,” he said, instantly demonstrating more personality, authority and charisma in his second language than The Fiver has ever managed in its first innit. “It’s the [Big Cup] semi-final – it shouldn’t be easy. They will go with all they have. That is absolutely clear from the things Unai said after the [first leg] and from the weekend where they made eight changes and took the other two off at half-time. We know that at points we will suffer. We could go behind, the crowd will be up after a big challenge; it could happen. Suffering doesn’t mean for long. It’s about how you react.”

This time last year, Liverpool were really suffering. They were