Villarreal midfielder Etienne Capoue has described Anfield as "hell" ahead of their Champions League semi-final first leg against Liverpool.
The Spanish side have upset Juventus and Bayern Munich en route to the last four having won the Europa League final last term against Manchester United. They will face a rampant opponent in Liverpool on Wednesday evening with the Reds still eyeing a unique quadruple.
Anfield has been the scene of some iconic European nights and Capoue experienced the atmosphere at the 53,000-seater ground with Tottenham and Watford throughout an eight-year spell in the Premier League. He will return to Merseyside with the Yellow Submarine and has opened up on the relentlessness nature of the players in front of their home faithful.
“Anfield is hell, you have to say it how it is. It's hell,” Capoue told Yahoo Sport. “It's the worst stadium I've been to in England. Whether it's the atmosphere, the way they play... For 90 minutes, you live in hell. They have this ability to transcend themselves, to cause you nothing but problems, all the time, in any part of the field.
"They never stop, they rush you all the time, they only want to score goals, and even when they score, they carry on. They want to knock you out. They don't care what or who is in front of them. They just want to kill everyone and that's it.”
Liverpool have seen off the likes of Barcelona, PSG and Manchester City on Merseyside during Jurgen Klopp's tenure. However they have gone winless in their last three Champions League knockout ties at Anfield. Benfica secured a draw earlier this month whilst Inter Milan secured a last-16 win. Real Madrid also held the Reds to a goalless stalemate last term.
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The Reds are eyeing a second European triumph in four seasons after lifting the trophy in 2019. Skipper Jordan Henderson has warned against taking Villarreal lightly with Unai Emery proving his credentials in cup competitions despite the LaLiga outfit being the tournament's least fancied outfit
He said: “They're a very good team. I think you’ve seen that over the performances, not only in the Champions League, [but] some performances in the league. The ones that stick out would be Juve and Bayern, which just shows the quality they have.
"They have a very experienced manager who has done a great job, so it'll be another really, really tough test as any semi-final in the Champions League would be. We need to be at 100 per cent if we want to get anything from the game.”
