He didn’t sink it because he didn’t want to: Liverpool leaves Villarreal alive | CHRONICLE

Villarreal is a team. Liverpool is a machine. It is the definitive work of a carefree-looking German, who leads one of the most powerful and poetic teams on the planet in a sweatshirt and beanie.

Because when the ball kisses the feet of Thiago Alcántara, that Xavi reincarnated with the pelvis of a bachatero, there is lyrics. Football recovers its quintessence, and sticks its tongue out at that bland philosophy imposed on us by the resultists.

The verb becomes football when Alexander-Arnold – the best right back today pound for pound – sends a remote controlled cross to Robertson, drawing a line of fire on the field. Verses are written when Luis Díaz faces his markers, with the same self-confidence with which he has faced his life. Music is produced when Mané and Salah, intimate enemies in Africa, weave walls with subtlety.

Fabinho and Van Dijk, called to be out of tune due to their corpulence and their role in the team, make us see our prejudices when they raise their little faces and send an assist from forty meters or when they get silly with the attackers and hide the ball from them.

All that and more is Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool. An ode to total football. But that yesterday, however, he sinned: two goals for such a waste of quality can only be self-sabotage.

If the ‘Reds’ had dared to translate half of the chances they generated into the result, they would have had tea this morning, awaiting the winner of Manchester City-Real Madrid.

But no. They have left the ‘Yellow Submarine’ intact for the second leg. Unlike the ‘citizens’ who faltered before the history of the meringues, Liverpool was negligent against a rival that has never won the Spanish League and is playing for the second time in its history in the Champions League semifinals. And as is known, this sport is illogical and unfair.

After a first half in which Thiago Alcántara hit the post with a forehand, Liverpool had a few minutes of goal hunger. At 53 ′, captain Henderson sent a center that the Ecuadorian Estupiñán grazed with his loot. This was enough to dislodge the Argentine Rulli, Villarreal goalkeeper, and break the zero.

Two minutes later, Mo Salah and Sadio Mané built a wall in the heart of the Spanish box. The Egyptian served with a caress and the Senegalese defined with the tip for 2-0.

Unai Emery, an expert in winning Europa Leagues (three with Sevilla and one with Villarreal), moved the bench. But there was not much to choose from.

The Argentinian Lo Celso was never able to establish connections with the Dutch Danjuma nor with the Nigerian Chukwueze. Boulaye Dia, the Franco-Senegalese, had a chance against the Brazilian Alisson, but he wasted it.

Liverpool, instead of going for more, was content, as if it were an epidemic of English teams. Too much prize for the ‘Yellow Submarine’ that will arrive with oxygen around the corner on May 3, at the Ceramics stadium.

They will have to be more than a compact team. If Liverpool succumbs, neither poetry nor good taste will forgive him.