In the early morning of April 28, Beijing time, the first leg of the Champions League semi-final continued, with Liverpool playing at home against Villarreal. In just two minutes of the second half, Liverpool scored two goals in a row to easily burst the Villarreal backline, and more than 60,000 fans celebrated.
This is the third meeting between the two teams in Europe, the previous two times were the semi-finals of the 2015-16 Europa League, Liverpool lost 0-1 away, returned to the home 3-0 win, eliminated Villarreal 3-1 on aggregate, and finally defeated by Sevilla under Emery, missing the Europa League.
Previously, in the quarter-finals, Liverpool eliminated Benfica 6-4 on aggregate, and Villarreal eliminated Bayern Munich 2-1 on aggregate. According to German transfer, Liverpool's entire team is worth 901 million euros, and Villarreal's entire team is worth 383 million euros.
In terms of starting, Liverpool continued the 433 formation, Salah, Mane, Luis Díaz led the front trident, Villarreal discharged the 541 formation, mainly defensive counterattack, Danjuma as a single arrow.
Liverpool was fruitless in the first half, with 67% possession and 12 shots on goal, only 2 shots on target, and Thiago completed a mid-post, the score is still 0-0 draw. According to statistics, this is the 2003/04 season, no team has not scored so many shots in the first half of the Champions League semi-finals.
The second half was abrupt. In the 53rd minute, after a pass from the right side of the Henderson penalty area passed through the refraction of Estupina, goalkeeper Rulli saved and could not see the ball directly into the net, and Liverpool broke the deadlock 1-0.
Waiting for the Villarreal players to ease up, Liverpool immediately extended the score. In the 55th minute, Salah burst into the box with a sudden pass, and Ma Nei inserted a low shot from the outside foot to help Liverpool take a 2-0 lead.
Within 2 minutes, Liverpool rewrote the 0-0 score to 2-0, turning the tide of the game at once. In the 64th minute, Robertson scored, was ruled invalid for offside, as early as the 50th minute before, Fabinho's goal was also ruled invalid, less than 15 minutes, Liverpool scored 4 goals, only 2 goals were valid.