Villarreal manager Unai Emery has claimed his side ‘need to play a perfect game’ to have any chance of progressing through to this season’s Champions League final.
The Spanish outfit find themselves 2-0 down on aggregate after last week’s game at Anfield in which Liverpool were truly dominant and Emery was today made aware that Jurgen Klopp’s side have lost just three of their last 56 games across all competitions.
“I didn’t want to hear those details but I did,” the 50-year-old said (as quoted by the Independent).
“It is a difficult task but we are working on the game.
“We need to play a perfect game. We need to find our excellence in certain things and maybe achieve something no one has achieved, which is this kind of comeback.
“We will try to find some weak spots, something that no one has done this season.”
The Reds dominated the La Liga side for most of the first leg at Anfield last week and limited Emery’s side to just 29% of the ball, something that the former Arsenal boss insisted cannot be the same tomorrow night.
“They played a tremendous game at Liverpool,” he said.
“Thiago was man of the match, Fabinho has been fantastic at Liverpool.
“They are two players who can play really good football but they have the work-rate and intensity and they were at a world-class level at Liverpool (last week).
“If the player of the match is again a Liverpool player we will be out for sure but if it is one of ours we can be there.”
Thiago Alcantara was at his magnificent best against the team from his homeland last week.
He controls the tempo of the game and when he’s at his best, we usually win games.
Although we are in full control of the tie at the moment, the Yellows will pose a different threat in front of their home supporters so we need to be right on it to ensure we book our spot in yet another European final.
You’d expect Thiago, Fabinho, Mo Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold to return to the starting XI after they were rested at the weekend, but whatever team Klopp chooses to play, we have confidence they’ll get the job done and put us one step closer to our seventh European Cup.