Sturridge puts Liverpool in Euro dreamland

They used to say the Kop sucked goals in at Anfield, but this was at the opposite end. Maybe there are other forces at work in this of all years.

Daniel Sturridge sprinted off towards the corner flag in joy and no little vindication. Excluded from the first leg, here he was with the goal that would propel Liverpool to their 12th major European final, in Basel on May 18.

Suddenly, the Europa League did not look much like the inconsequential consolation prize of popular imagination.

Thursday night, Channel 5. Remember that? Try the Champions League, next season.

That is what will be at stake when Liverpool meet Sevilla, the winners of the previous two editions.

Lift the trophy, and as a bonus Jurgen Klopp could then lead Liverpool into the world’s most prestigious and lucrative club competition in his first fragment of a season. What an achievement that would be.

Klopp has reached two major finals, the League Cup being the other, in his first seven months at the club. No other Liverpool manager can claim such an immediate impact.

And Liverpool have done it the hard way, throughout. Not just by having to chase games, but with the passage they have been given by UEFA’s little plastic balls.

In the last three rounds they have been paired with the toughest opponents every time. Manchester United, simply for the emotional charge of the fixture, then Borussia Dortmund, now Villarreal.

English clubs have a dismal record against La Liga opponents of late, but Liverpool swept them off the park, overturning a 1-0 deficit from last week and overwhelming them, physically and technically, too.

They were the better side in every aspect — but most strikingly in terms of athleticism and ferocious commitment.

This was everything Manchester City in the Bernabeu on Wednesday was not.

Liverpool were ahead after only seven minutes, which levelled the aggregate score and took much of the tension out of the occasion, but Sturridge’s goal was the clincher, even if a third from Adam Lallana made certain of victory.

Villarreal did not know what had hit them. Not so much in terms of the Anfield atmosphere — they have noisy grounds in Spain, too — but when faced with the rolling ball of pure red fury that is Klopp’s Liverpool.

At no time did the home team look like losing this and beyond the fifth minute it is hard to recall an intervention Simon Mignolet was required to make.

That was the irony: the first chance of the game going to Villarreal, giving the indication that this could be a difficult night for Liverpool when, in reality, it proved one of their most comfortable.

Roberto Soldado chested the ball down to right-back Mario Gaspar, whose low shot took a dangerous deflection. Mignolet was equal to it, pushing the ball out to his right.

A minute later, good work from Denis Suarez — and a frivolous penalty appeal — ended with Jonathan Dos Santos shooting over.

It proved a false dawn. A minute later Liverpool were ahead, and never looked back.

It was Nathaniel Clyne who set up the move for the opening goal with a cross from the right, flicked out by goalkeeper Areola but only to Roberto Firmino, who sent the ball back across in the direction of Sturridge.

It wasn’t struck cleanly and he couldn’t make contact but his marker, a rattled Bruno Soriano, did and the Villarreal captain turned the ball into his own net.

James Milner, outstanding in the first leg, was in similar form here and after 14 minutes played a superb ball through to Lallana, who should have done better but screwed his shot just wide.

Yet Villarreal were clearly taken aback by the early onslaught, none more so than young goalkeeper Areola, on loan from Paris Saint-Germain, but first choice this season.

He missed the first leg and looked as if he would have preferred to miss this one, too, uncomfortable with the pressure and the challenge of Liverpool’s front line.

He was lucky when, jumping high to collect a lofted pass, he clipped his own player and dropped the ball on impact with the ground. Referee Viktor Kassai presumed a foul and awarded a free-kick, sparing Areola’s embarrassment.

He was unlucky for the second, though, which came after a lovely little pass from Firmino to leave Sturridge one-on-one. Areola blocked with his legs but wasn’t quite as adept at it as David de Gea. The ball could have gone anywhere, though, so a route off the post favoured Liverpool.

Yet nobody can claim it was undeserved. Liverpool were the best team on the night, deserved to be two clear and were not flattered by a three-goal winning margin. Emre Can, returning from an injury absence, was exceptional.

Once central defender Victor Ruiz was sent off for a second bookable offence — deliberately stepping on Lallana’s foot, a stupid and needless foul having already been cautioned in the first half — it was all over for Villarreal.

After 81 minutes, Lallana made certain of that. Firmino, looking considerably happier when not played as a central striker, broke down the right and cut the ball back, Sturridge couldn’t get a clean connection but Lallana could, flicking the ball in from just in front of Areola as Villarreal appealed in vain for offside. They were scuttled, the Yellow Submarines.

Justice has a different meaning at Anfield — and certainly on Thursday night, the first home game since the Hillsborough verdict and marked with proper respect and fierce defiance, as always — but, in simple football terms, this was justice done.

Sevilla may be the Europa League masters, but there is a special force behind Liverpool this season, and they have every right to believe one Spanish team will find it as hard to cope with their brand of football as another.

A lot is made of the atmosphere here on European nights but it was Liverpool’s football that proved unnerving. Lively crowds are one thing but Villarreal will not have had too many teams coming at them as Liverpool did.

High tempo, high energy and just the right side of legal, Liverpool’s physicality sent Villarreal screaming to the referee.

It was no Chelsea-Tottenham, but it did spark memories of previous clashes of culture in Europe.

Everton versus Bayern Munich, in a European Cup-winners’ Cup semi-final, for instance — the Germans banging on the dug-out roof in fury at the battering handed out by Andy Gray. ‘This is not football,’ Udo Lattek told Howard Kendall, who replied with two words.

Liverpool didn’t utilise aerial bombardment, but Villarreal were not used to being hassled the way Liverpool hassle. The speed, the intensity, no time on the ball, it unsettled them.

Marcelino, Villarreal’s manager, chased the fourth official down the sideline at one time, but in the middle Kassai remained unmoved.

The first name in the book was Ruiz, and when Nathaniel Clyne was ultimately cautioned it was only because Soldado had exaggerated his pain with a succession of forward rolls. It was almost an act of appeasement, rather than discipline.

Light relief was provided by a clash between Soldado and Dejan Lovren in front of the dug-outs. Clipped, accidentally, by Lovren’s arm in a tussle, Soldado fell. He then clutched Lovren’s shin, and the Liverpool player tumbled easily, too.

It’s fair to say neither would make it at Widnes, but the more Villarreal protested, the more they lost touch with any gameplan. By contrast, Liverpool, and Klopp, know exactly what they are about.

So will Sevilla, and they won’t like it.

Source: MailOnline

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