Liverpool roll over Villarreal to put one foot in Champions League final

Liverpool are in the Champions League final for the third time in five seasons after defeating Villarreal 2-0 in the first leg of their semi-final at Anfield on Wednesday.

Pervis Estupinan deflected Jordan Henderson’s cross into his own net before Sadio Mane added a second to undo Villarreal manager Unai Emery’s defensive game plan.

The Reds are still on track to win the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, and League Cup for the first time in club history.

Liverpool’s season will end on May 28 in Paris, barring a major upset when the teams meet again in southern Spain in six days.

Villarreal’s entire population could fit inside Anfield, but the 3,000 travelling fans did their best to match the home fans’ volume early on.

In sharp contrast to the free-flowing excitement of Manchester City’s 4-3 win over Real Madrid in the other semi-final on Tuesday, Emery’s side used the same strategy that got them past Juventus and Bayern Munich, retiring behind the ball.

The Yellow Submarine, on the other hand, could scarcely lay a glove on Jurgen Klopp’s players, who simply had to wait their turn to make their domination count.

The Reds have already scored 135 goals this season, but they were held scoreless for the first 45 minutes, which was disheartening.

With the greatest chance, Mane headed wide Mohamed Salah’s perfect cross.

A deflected shot from the Senegalese also went just wide, while Villarreal goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli escaped with a clean sheet despite some clumsy handling from a number of speculative tries.

Before the interval, Liverpool came within a whisker of breaking the deadlock as Thiago Alcantara’s beautiful effort clipped the post.

The six-time European winners stepped up their game in the second half and began to rip holes in Villarreal’s defence.

In the build-up, Fabinho’s goal was called out for offside against Virgil van Dijk.

Moments later, Anfield erupted in applause as Rulli’s clumsy attempt to parry Henderson’s deflected cross cost the Spaniards.

The visitors could not afford the floodgates to open, yet they were helpless to stop the waves of Liverpool attacks.

On 55 minutes, Salah was the architect, with a brilliantly weighted pass for Mane to prod past Rulli.

Villarreal were once again saved by the offside flag, which ruled out Andy Robertson’s goal.

Klopp dubbed Emery the “King of the Cups” for his incredible Europa League record, with one of his four victories coming against the German as Sevilla manager during his first season at Liverpool in 2016.

Six years later, Liverpool is a different animal, and their shortcomings as a team in seventh place in La Liga were exposed as they failed to produce any form of reaction after falling behind.

As Liverpool threatened to kill off the tie with a third goal, Luis Diaz crashed across the face of the goal.

The English giants had to settle for a two-goal lead, but in 55 games this season, they have yet to lose by two goals.

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