A two-goal loss in the first leg reduced Villarreal's chances of reaching the Champions League final almost to zero.

With no lead in the score, Unai Emery's defensive team had no choice but to open up and try to play number one.

And this could well be a verdict in the confrontation with Liverpool, which has one of the fastest attacking lines in Europe.

Lightning counterattacks with the participation of Mohammed Salah and Sadio Mane promised to be a serious problem for the defensive line of the hosts, who did not differ in agility.

In this case, the 36-year-old Raul Albiol, who has become much slower with age, could well have been the weak link.

Surely Emery understood this too.

Although the former mentor of Spartak did not put an end to the prospects of the wards, he emphasized that in order to win, his team needed to have an outstanding, perfect match.

For this, he actually sacrificed a meeting with Alaves (1: 2) in La Liga and released half of the backup team on the field, giving rest not only to most of the leaders, but also to the base players.

Jurgen Klopp also tried to arrange a semblance of rotation - not on such a large scale, but the leading players still got the opportunity to take a breath.

The same Salah and Fabinho played just over 20 minutes, and one of the main characters of the first semi-final - Thiago Alcantara - less than a quarter of an hour.

Nevertheless, none of the coaches did not do without permutations.

But if Klopp left Jordan Henderson and Luis Diaz in reserve purely for tactical reasons, then Emery was forced to deal with the lack of a top scorer.

Arno Danjuma was injured and did not even get into the application for the game.

As a result, not quite healthy Gerard Moreno took his place, and instead of Samu Chukwueze, Boulaye Dia unexpectedly appeared at the base.

This season, the Senegalese has scored only six goals and has never scored in the Champions League.

But already in the third minute, the striker interrupted a dry streak of seven matches and gave Villarreal hope for a remontade.

Moreover, one of the main roles in the goal attack was played by Purvis Estupinyan - the same defender whose unsuccessful actions in many ways helped Liverpool score twice at Anfield.

The Ecuadorian performed a perfect serve on Etienne Capa, who burst into the penalty area, and he drove to Dia in touch.

From a couple of meters, the Senegalese did not miss.

Thanks to this goal, the hosts were able to complete two tasks at once - to reduce the gap in the score and make the guests twitch.

The Reds suddenly began to make mistakes out of the blue, and Thiago looked especially unpresentable.

If in the first meeting almost all of his passes reached the goal (96% accuracy), then in the second he could hardly give even to his neighbor.

In the first half hour, only three of the Spaniard's five transmissions reached the addressee.

And even though the Spaniard managed to slightly improve his performance by the end of the segment (70%), he performed clearly below his capabilities.

In general, this was applicable to all the players of the guests, confused under the crazy pressure of Villarreal.

Mane looked amorphous and almost helped the opponent organize the second goal, Jota was almost invisible, and even failed to realize one-on-one with Jeronimo Rulli, letting the ball go far away from him.

Salah, on the other hand, looked a little brighter, but in the absence of support he was powerless.

As a result, in the first half, Liverpool only shot twice on goal and gained 0.06 of the expected goal (xG).

And four minutes before the break, the guests missed the second time.

Pau Torres' phenomenal accuracy of 60 meters reached Capu, who again showed himself as an assistant.

The canopy for Francis Coquelin turned out to be incredibly accurate and convenient, and the Frenchman's blow was irresistible.

Villarreal, even before the break, restored parity in a two-legged confrontation and prepared to shock the entire football world.

But in the second half, the wrong team appeared on the Estadio de la Seramica field, which did not allow Klopp's formidable team to raise their heads.

The hosts either could not withstand the highest pace they proposed, or deliberately took a breather, but this was enough for the guests to seize the initiative and turn the course of the meeting on its head.

Yes, and great came into the game Diaz, who replaced the faded Jota.

The comeback of Liverpool began gradually.

First, Trent Alexander-Arnold shook the crossbar, after a few tens of seconds, Thiago hit the target for the first time, and in the 62nd minute, Fabinho completed a protracted attack of the guests and reduced the gap.

Salah at the last moment got ahead of the defender and pierced the ball to the Brazilian midfielder, who struck.

Rulyi did not have time to close his legs and let him into the "house".

Since then, the pressure from Liverpool has only increased.

Villarreal not only failed to return to the game, but also began to make mistakes more and more often and by the 74th minute was inferior in the score.

First, all the same Diaz closed the chic diagonal of Alexander-Arnold into the penalty area, again sending the ball between the legs of the Rules, and then Mane responded to Keita's throw and again upset the Argentinean.

The Senegalese made a spurt from his own half of the field, outstripped the goalkeeper who ran far beyond the penalty area and rolled into an empty net, simultaneously putting Juan Foit on the lawn.

Villarreal never recovered from such a shock.

In the remaining time, Emery's wards could not organize a single dangerous attack on Alison Becker's goal, but they almost missed the fourth goal and remained in the minority.

To two assists, Capu added the same number of yellow cards and went to the subtribune ahead of time.

Liverpool did not take advantage of the numerical advantage, but it is unlikely that they were very upset because of this.

Merseysiders won a strong-willed victory away and reached the Champions League final for the third time in the last five years.