Villarreal manager Unai Emerysaid this Wednesday, after being defeated by Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield, that given the superiority of his rival the result could have been worse although he trusted that at home they will offer other things in the second leg of the Champions League semifinals next week. “They are such powerful teams that it is very difficult. Also, in the semifinals the surprise factor that we could have in the eighths and quarters is already diluted. This time we played for the first time outside the first game, “he said in statements to Movistar +.
“They have not let us take control of the game, they have not let us run. Today it was a matter of resisting defensively to have options and in a way we have done it because there it will be different and there we will get more things”, added the Basque coach. “Despite today’s game we know we can compete against Liverpool, but today we haven’t. At La Cerámica we have to try to make the game totally different there because today we had a plan but the idea hasn’t come out”, he concluded.
For its part, Geronimo Rulligoalkeeper of the ‘yellow submarine’, appealed for the comeback and said that they go to the second leg with “all the confidence in the world” and that he has no doubts “that the team is going to stand up“. “They were superior, but if there is something good about this team, it is that they believe and that they believe that the second leg will be different,” Rulli said in the mixed zone. “Confidence throughout the world, if we did not give them the pass to the end right now. We believe in our work. Tuesday will be a completely different game than today. I have no doubt that this team is going to stand up,” he added. “We are talking about Liverpool, with its stadium, with 50,000 people in its favor. He is one of the best in the world, if not the best. If we thought that we were not going to suffer, we were completely wrong,” Rulli pointed out.
Klopp: “Half the work is done”
Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool coach, praised his team’s game, put a point of sanity despite the result and said that only half the work is done. “We had to play the second half like the first half, without losing concentration, with intensity. With the effort to lose a ball and recover it immediately and we did it. We played a really good game”, explained the German coach at a press conference . “It’s 2-0 and half the job is done. The environment that they are going to propose there is going to be very complicated. They will fight with everything they have. I can’t respect you more. The way they have approached the game today has been very good. We have been taught a lesson,” he added.
The German coach was reminded of the 2018 semi-finals, when they comfortably beat Roma, but denied they could be trusted. “We did not go to Rome thinking that we had already done it and that we had passed. That team had just eliminated Barcelona. We have not thought for a second about that game,” Klopp said. On the key to the match against Villarreal, Klopp pointed out that they needed to score goals, because against teams under such pressure, “if they manage to get out they can be a real threat.” “Most of the time we defended very well,” he added.
