Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has moved to praise opposite number Unai Emery ahead of his team’s Champions League semi-final meeting with Villarreal.
The first leg takes place at Anfield on Wednesday evening after Emery overcame European powerhouses in Juventus and Bayern Munich in the previous two rounds.
A master of European competition after winning the Europa League on four different occasions across two clubs, Emery has tasted success against Klopp before.
One of his Europa League victories came at Liverpool’s expense, beating Klopp’s side 3-1 while manager of Sevilla after a second-half comeback in the 2016 final.
After overcoming two of the biggest names in the game - with those wins following up on the win over Manchester United in last season’s Europa League final - Emery is once again proving to be a master tactician in the game.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday, Klopp paid tribute to the former Arsenal boss.
“Unai is a detail-obsessed manager who prepares for all different situations in the game and that’s what his team is executing,” he said.
“It’s really, really good, different ways to build-up, different ways to press, different ways to react on results.
“He is a world class coach is doing an incredible job there.
“Our job is to make life difficult as possible for them and that is what we will try and do over the two legs.”
