Liverpool might not have been behind in their Champions League semi-final tie at any point but they were certainly on the ropes after the first half in Villarreal on Tuesday night. It’s hard to think of a worse 45 minutes they’ve played this season.
The two-goal advantage which they had worked so hard to accrue at Anfield had been wiped away and it was unclear how they were going to quell both the crowd and the home side at the Estadio de la Ceramica. The Reds’ worst pass accuracy of 2021/22 was 74 percent, in the 2-2 draw at Chelsea, but in the first half at Villarreal it was down at just 65 percent.
Jurgen Klopp’s side conceded their earliest goal of the season, let in two-or-more in the first half for only the fourth time and it was the only match of that quartet where they didn’t also score themselves. In their biggest game of the campaign, Liverpool were in a real state at the interval.
