During the week, the good folk over at Redmen TV said they were concerned that we – as fans – might have put too much energy into the Dortmund game. The way we welcomed the buses, the atmosphere inside the ground, the nature of the win… They speculated that we might not be able to rise to quite the same level against Villarreal.
They were wrong. Very wrong.
If anything, the pre-match reception tonight was better than that against Dortmund. The early goal meant Anfield was rocking rather than subdued, the team performance was more composed and – honestly – vastly improved.
If Villarreal thought they’d pulled off a coup in the first leg, their spirits must have evaporated the moment they got to within a few miles of Anfield.
Just look at the scenes:
We are Liverpool la la la.. RT @BreatheSport: Liverpool fans welcome the team bus to Anfield! Huge night ahead 🔴🔥pic.twitter.com/s4Aa6IKPe7
— Y A Y A N (@ya2nThereds) May 5, 2016
Liverpool fans waiting for the team bus tonight. #LFC 👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/ZNeDh8EO4y — UtkarshLFC (@iUtkarshJoshi) May 5, 2016
Liverpool Liverpool Liverpool @VillarrealCF bus coming through #LFC #Villarreal pic.twitter.com/VMD8PlkGCa
— scarface (@D10_LFC) May 5, 2016
Liverpool Liverpool Liverpool @VillarrealCF bus coming through #LFC #Villarreal pic.twitter.com/tl2vEYXHCA — scarface (@D10_LFC) May 5, 2016
The reception for Klopp and his players here tonight. #LFC pic.twitter.com/ZrWiZ678KB
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceEcho) May 5, 2016
This was the team bus arriving earlier. Absolutely incredible. pic.twitter.com/WSK2xou8Ys — Dave O’Connell (@DaveOCKOP) May 5, 2016
We’ll leave you with this quote from Jurgen Klopp from after the first leg:
“My thought when everyone was celebrating was: ‘Sorry, this is not over yet – you still have to come to Anfield’. It’s a holy place.”