Jurgen Klopp has explained the half-time team talk that helped Liverpool reach the Champions League final, saying his players needed to 'get their mind right' to turn it around at Villarreal.
The Reds fell behind to Boulaye Dia's early opener as Unai Emery's men halved their deficit from the 2-0 defeat at Anfield last week inside three minutes at El Madrigal.
Etienne Capoue then supplied a cross for Francis Coquelin to head home and restore parity across the tie as the Yellow Submarine punished a below-par Liverpool before the half-time whistle offered a reprieve.
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A second-half switch of Diogo Jota for Luis Diaz inspired the turnaround with the Colombian winger equalising on the night after Fabinho had made it 2-1 just after the hour mark.
Sadio Mane completed the comeback after going past goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli and defender Juan Foyth before rolling it into an empty net and Klopp detailed exactly what was said during the interval to force the change in performance from his players.
"I told them to play better than the first!" Klopp said. "Usually like this, when we don't find a way into the game, we try to find a situation at half-time which we can show the players that explains it.
"I told [the analysis team] to find one situation of how we did it right in the first half and [assistant manager] Pete Krawietz said he couldn't find any. It was clear, the start was difficult for us to take.
"We were impressed by that and we had no real build up. We didn't play in the right spaces and all of a sudden we were just kicking long balls and trying to force it.
"We had a bit of a moment when we were kind of dangerous but never enough to get some momentum. We explained to the boys what we had to do to get stronger and move smarter. In the first half we didn't move enough and couldn't find the half-spaces in midfield.
"We were too fixed, there was no flexibility so we had to mix that up to cause them problems. We played into their hands, so that is what we had to do to change."
Klopp added: "It was tough for Villarreal. They were man marking in moments, they took a lot of risk but the physical aspect we didn't mention. So no, I cannot tell you exactly what I said at half time because I have forgotten already but I was talking about playing football and showing up and being brave.
"It was a football problem and it could only be fixed by a football solution if you can get your mind right, because after the first three minutes our mind wasn’t right. We were too rushed, you have to play your own football and in the second half we did that."
