Rocio Robles
The UEFA Champions League closed the first leg of semifinal matches with Liverpool vs Villarreal on Wednesday, April 27. Liverpool was the clear favorite in this match, not only because they were playing at home, but also because, of the two teams, Liverpool had the greatest performance in the UEFA Champions League since the group stage.
Villarreal, meanwhile, arrived as the “Cinderella” to the UEFA Champions League semifinals, as they are the least favored of the four remaining teams. Villarreal did their best to stop the English team’s attacking power at Anfield, but ended up losing by a score of 2-0.
The visitors’ strategy was expected to be similar to the one they applied when they faced Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League: to deploy all their defensive play to prevent their opponents from taking advantage. The “Reds” were well aware of this, and their approach would remain the same as it had been against all previous opponents: to play their game and capitalize on the offensive prowess of the trident of Diaz, Mané, and Salah.
From the first minute of play, the English tried out their attacking weapons. Luis Díaz had two consecutive plays in which he tried to surprise the rival defense, but he did not succeed. The scoreboard remained unchanged for the first 45 minutes as one team tried to score and the other avoided simultaneously.
The local players’ annoyance at not being able to score was evident.
Although the score remained 0-0, things were not even on the pitch, as Liverpool had 63% of the possession.
The second half was more or less the same. Liverpool continued to attack and Villarreal defended. The Reds were so adamant that Fabinho had the crowd yelling for a goal in the 50th minute. However, despite the euphoria at Anfield, the action was disallowed for offside and everything remained 0-0.
But the home side were getting closer and closer to achieving their goal, and eventualaly they got their opponents to make a mistake, as Ecuador’s Pervis Estupiñan scored an own goal to put the home side 1-0 up in the 53rd minute. After changing the scoreboard, it didn’t take long for the English team to increase their lead. Mohamed Salah sent a pinpoint pass into the box for Sadio Mané, who sent the ball into the net to make it 2-0.
UEFA Champions League results: Sadio Mané makes tournament history
With his goal, the Senegalese striker equaled Didier Drogba of Côte d’Ivoire as the African with the most goals (14) in UEFA Champions League play-offs.
In the 64th minute, the referee disallowed a goal to Liverpool’s Andrew Robertson for offside.
Even though they already had the advantage on their side, they wanted more goals and kept going forward to try to get them. The Spanish defense and goalie Gerónimo Rulli held off the rival’s next attack to maintain the score at 2-0.
The numbers at the end of the game revealed how well matched the teams were, with Liverpool having 68 percent possession and generating 20 shots, five of which were on target, compared to Villarreal having only one shot, which went wide.
In this way, the “Yellow Submarine” will have to put together a strategy to turn it around at the Estadio de La Cerámica if they want to reach the UEFA Champions League Grand Final.
