Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has had to eat his words after mocking Jamie Carragher and Liverpool on Tuesday night.
After a woeful first-half from Liverpool they found themselves 2-0 down to Villarreal, and the Spanish side had levelled the tie on aggregate. Like most Liverpool fans, Carragher wanted Jurgen Klopp to make changes, and tweeted: "Henderson and Diaz at half-time please!"
Klopp did put on Luis Diaz, but Henderson was kept on the bench, and Neville replied with: "Good call gaffer." But it appears that Diaz was all Liverpool needed, and now Neville has been left with egg on his face.
There has been little to cheer about from United's perspective this season, and many Red Devils fans are desperate for Liverpool not to complete a historic quadruple. And at half-time on Tuesday, they may have felt as though their dreams had come true as Villarreal rocked Liverpool.
But in classic Liverpool fashion, they fought back and somehow completed a miraculous turnaround, inspired by the brilliance of Diaz. The Colombian changed the entire game, and grabbed a goal for himself before Liverpool went on to win 3-2.
Neville has been left to regret his earlier tweet, and Carragher has made sure to poke fun at his colleague once again after the final whistle. Liverpool, Carragher and all Reds fans have Diaz to thank for a fantastic performance off the bench, and he's surely earned a start in the Champions League final.
Former Liverpool striker Peter Crouch described Diaz as a "complete game changer," as he said on BT Sport: "He changed the game, he was fantastic. The moment he came on, he was getting at players. A complete game changer."
And Michael Owen praised Liverpool for showing their class despite an uncharacteristic first-half. "The difference between the first and second half for both teams, Liverpool showed their class, they battered Villarreal second half," Owen said.
"It was strange tactically, I’d love to know what Jurgen Klopp said differently at half time, whether he thought Villarreal would bring an onslaught at the start of the second half, he surely should have. It was such a different second half and more like we expected."
The win keeps Liverpool's quadruple hopes alive, and it means that whatever happens, they will have played as many games possible in a single season. They have already won the Carabao Cup final, and they now have an FA Cup final and a Champions League final to compete in.
That is of course, as well as the Premier League, and they're still locked in a fierce title race with Manchester City. And Rio Ferdinand thinks that the squad will already be talking about their chances of completing the quadruple.
"They’ll enjoy the journey back to England, rightly so," Ferdinand said. "You get to the final of the Champions League you enjoy these moments, but the focus, they’ll be having conversations already about how they’re feeling for Saturday against Spurs. Every game is huge. You don’t get carried away and I don’t think they will. They’re experienced in these situations now."
