MY ACCOUNT
Liverpool left back Andrew Robertson said he and his team-mates are “enjoying” their hectic schedule as they earned a 2-0 first leg lead in their Champions League semi-final against Villarreal.
An own goal and a Sadio Mane strike, both early in the second half, was enough for Jurgen Klopp’s men to secure a decent cushion ahead of next Tuesday’s second leg in Spain.
Villarreal frustrated Liverpool at Anfield in the first half, but were unable to stop them from winning their ninth Champions League match of the season, the most games the Reds have ever won in a single campaign in European competition (excluding qualifiers).
Speaking to BT Sport after the win, captain Jordan Henderson praised the visitors, and said staying “positive” was key for Liverpool.
“Yeah, very organised team,” Henderson said about Unai Emery’s side. “We knew they’d make it difficult, but it was important that we just kept going, stay positive and we had the confidence that if we did that, kept moving the ball quickly, we’d eventually break them down, and we did that with two good goals.”
It was Henderson’s cross that deflected in off Pervis Estupinan to finally break the deadlock, and when told it had deflected, the England international jokingly replied: “Did it? I thought it went straight in!
“Yeah a little bit lucky, but it was good play, good build up… But, you need a little bit of luck against teams with a low block. We got that with the first and thankfully we got another one.”
Liverpool had 19 shots to Villarreal’s one on a dominant night for the Reds. The Yellow Submarine’s one shot, which missed the target, is the joint-fewest by any side in a Champions League semi-final according to Opta since this data has been available (2003-04), along with Inter v Barcelona in 2009-10.
Robertson was also asked by BT Sport about the game, and he was keen to point out that the players are enjoying themselves, with an unprecedented quadruple of the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and EFL Cup still possible.
“We had quite a few chances in the first half, just trying to break them down and keep doing what we were doing,” the Scotland captain said. “The first goal always kind of does that [gives you a boost], we then had a bit of momentum. The noise in here was incredible after the first goal and that kind of took us to the second one.
“We’d have liked to add maybe one more, it wasn’t meant to be but a clean sheet and two goals? We can’t argue with that.
“You have to [work hard], it’s the semi-final of the Champions League. If you can’t run about for 90 minutes in this kind of game then when will you?
“Our intensity’s been really high the last couple of games, we’ve had a real hectic schedule and we’re enjoying it. I think you seen that today.
“There’s still a lot of work to do in this tie, but we’re happy with our work tonight.”
Also asked about not getting frustrated by a stubborn Villarreal defence, Robertson added: “That was the message from Hendo at half-time, just saying we were playing well first half, probably some of the best we’ve played and we didn’t get a goal for it, but we kept going, kept trying to be patient and luckily with a big deflection (smiling at Henderson), we managed to get the breakthrough.”
