At 3:00 a.m. Beijing time on April 28, a focus match in the first leg of the 2021/2022 Champions League semi-final was officially staged, and The Premier League's second place Liverpool sat at home to meet villarreal from La Liga!
Liverpool are arguably one of the best teams in European football this season, with head coach Klopp leading the team on multiple fronts, still maintaining the suspense of the Premier League title with Manchester City, and recently maintaining a 10-game unbeaten run in all competitions. Salah, Mane and Luis Díaz started the attacking trident.
Villarreal as a unique dark horse team, head coach Emery led the team to defeat the Bundesliga hegemon Bayern undoubtedly broke a big cold, and this club team from Spain's 50,000 small towns can go much is looking forward to. The team's front line are Danjuma and Lo Celso, who have been in great form recently.
After the start of the game, Liverpool's attacking end was clearly better, but the relatively larger Thanarial's defence was solid enough. Although Huang Qian seems to be inferior to the opponent on paper, he shows a good level, the team has a full degree of tacit understanding, whether it is the team's defensive cooperation, many players have a good staring defense.
As a result, the Reds did not have many great opportunities in the Premier League, and salah and Thiago's multiple goals failed to directly change the situation, with a 0-0 score in the first half.
The game continued in the second half and in the 50th minute, Liverpool were awarded a corner kick and Fabinho kicked the ball into the net, but van Dijk's offside was nullified in the lead.
In the 53rd minute, Liverpool's attack pressed on, Henderson inserted a cross on the right, at this time the ball touched the feet of 24-year-old Huang Qian Ecuadorian defender Estupina, after refraction bounced into the net, oolong ball! The situation on the pitch was finally changed and Liverpool took a 1-0 lead!
Just 2 minutes later, in the 55th minute, the Liverpool players were ready to go near the opponent's penalty area, Salah received the ball and sent a subtle straight plug, Mane ran quickly to score the ball into the net! 2-0, Liverpool lead by 2 goals in 2 minutes!
After a high-intensity defensive half, Villarreal's otherwise solid backline also began to make mistakes. The two goals are very similar, the same Liverpool players in the opponent's penalty area near the rapid series, through continuous attack and pass penetration to create a good chance to score, successfully through the opponent's door continuously.
In the 64th minute of the match, Alexander-Arnold, who had a good cross, sent a long diagonal pass, and Robertson pushed forward to shoot at the goal, but it was already offside.
At the end of the match, the score was fixed at 2-0, Liverpool defeated Villarreal by 2 goals to win the first leg of the semi-finals, successfully taking the lead, while winning nine consecutive Champions League games + 11 unbeaten games in all competitions. Although the score seems to be small, the team has almost taken the initiative of the whole game, and one foot can be said to have stepped into the final door.
In this battle, there is a certain strength gap between the passive Villarreal and Liverpool, but after all, the football is round, and the two sides are looking forward to the second leg of the match at 3:00 a.m. Beijing time on May 4!