In the Champions League semi-finals, Liverpool played Villarreal at home. Liverpool fans were somewhat worried after exchanging blanks in the first half, however, two goals from Henderson and Mane within three minutes made Anfield stadium happy.
In their last two Champions League semi-final appearances, Liverpool have shown great offensive prowess at home, scoring five goals against Roma in 2018 and four against Barca in 2019.
However, Emery's tactic of taking the initiative to reclaim the defense has caused Liverpool trouble. Liverpool had the upper hand in the first half, with 12 shots on goal and 16 touches in the opposition penalty area. However, Liverpool's expected goal was only 0.6, which was enough to reflect Villarreal's excellent defence.
In fact, Liverpool scored 12 shots on goal in the first half, setting a record for the most shots on goal in the first half of the Champions League semi-finals since the technical statistics of the OPTA website in 2003-04. Similarly, Villarreal has never conceded a goal in half-time away from home in six Champions League games this season.
How do you tear your opponent's defenses? Like in the derby, Klopp found a way to do it at halftime by storming the left side of Estuphinan's post.
In the 55th minute of the match, Salah went straight, Henderson shot in the air, and the ball hit Estuphinan's foot and slightly changed the line and entered the net. In the end, UEFA counted the goal as Estuphinone's oolong ball.
It was the ninth oolong goal scored in the Champions League semi-final and the 1st since 2018, when Milner scored against Roma in 2019.
Just 2 minutes later, it was Salah's straight pass again, and Mane stabbed the goal against the offside. In European competitions, Mane has scored 31 goals, equalling the goals scored by legendary stars such as Hento, Klose and Kaka.
At the same time, since the beginning of the 2017-18 season, Mane has scored 14 goals in the Champions League knockout rounds, second only to Benzema, who scored 16 goals, C Ronaldo and Levan scored 13 goals each, and Messi scored 12 goals.
In all competitions this season, Mane has scored 20 goals and six goals in the last seven games. After Díaz joined, the change of center fully unleashed Mane's goal-scoring ability.
It is worth mentioning that the assist for Mane is Salah's first assist in the Champions League this season. In the crucial Champions League semi-finals, Salah scored two goals in 3 minutes, once again proving his strength and worth.