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90 min +1: Gueye loops a cross in from a deep position on the left. Easy for Allison.
90 min: Mac Allister feeds Isak into the box down the left … but Veiga pushes the striker wider than he’d like, and blocks the eventual shot from a tight angle. There will be three additional minutes.
89 min: Cardona crosses from the left. Alisson gathers low in his six-yard box. There were no yellow shirts putting him under pressure.
88 min: … and as a result of that, Anfield is quiet, and Villarreal are snapping into tackles again! This most certainly is not over yet!
GOAL! Liverpool 4-3 Villarreal (Oluwaseyi 87)
Hold on a minute, this isn’t over just yet! Perez is pinged clear down the right. He wedges across for Oluwaseyi, who opens his body and slams a sidefoot into the bottom left from eight yards. One last big twist coming up?
86 min: Wirtz plays McConnell into the box down the right. McConnell crosses deep for Gakpo, who attempts a bicycle kick from six yards that nearly hits the roof of the Kop. And turns out he was offside anyway.
85 min: Perez probes down the right and cuts back for Moreno, who opens his body and looks for the left-hand corner … but his shot is always heading a long way wide. Alisson wanders over to watch its progress.
83 min: Villarreal enjoy a rare period of possession in Liverpool territory. But do very little with it, the hosts holding their shape, and eventually the flag pops up for offside.
81 min: Nyoni, who has been quietly efficient as ever, ends his shift. Such a promising player. McConnell comes on in his place.
79 min: Santi Comesaña is replaced by Gerard Moreno, Villarreal’s all-time record goalscorer. Speaking of which, Liverpool’s version, Ian Rush, is in the stand, and he’s 66 years young today.
77 min: Liverpool ping it around calmly. Such a gulf between their second-half performance and the majority of their first.
75 min: Ngumoha, who is surely Liverpool’s player of the match, makes way for Barcola, while Gomez replaces Jacquet. Rio’s name rings around Anfield. A new hero is born. He sits on the bench with the widest of smiles. What a performance. He’s hauled his team out of bother tonight, elegantly, sensationally so.
73 min: Perez is sent free down the middle. His low shot beats Alisson, but clanks off the base of the left-hand post and away. So unlucky. And then the flag goes up for offside. VAR might have taken a second look, mind, had that gone in. It was cigarette-paper close.
72 min: Wirtz plays a cute reverse pass down the left to release Gakpo into acres. Gakpo has Isak clear in the middle, but opts to shoot himself. The shot is blocked. You’d imagine Isak is furious … but he’s not really the demonstrative type. Which is not to say that might not be discussed in the full and frank style during any post-match debrief.
70 min: Ngumoha moves smoothly in from the right and aims for the top left. Inches wide, the keeper nowhere. Anfield is loud enough right now, but had that gone in, the roof would have sheared clean off.
GOAL! Liverpool 4-2 Villarreal (Wirtz 68)
Yes, it’s one of those nights all right! Tsimikas sends a pass down the left for Gakpo, who shifts the ball infield for Wirtz, who takes a touch as he enters the box before arrowing a forensic drive across the keeper and into the bottom right. Anfield en fête!
67 min: Koumas, who has put in a shift tonight, is replaced by Isak. The mood in Anfield so different now. Perhaps it’s going to be one of those nights after all!
GOAL! Liverpool 3-2 Villarreal (Mac Allister 65)
Ngumoha zips past four yellow shirts down the right at wild speed. He enters the box and fires low into the centre. Mac Allister can’t miss from four yards, even though he tries his best to, his shot smacking off the underside of the bar before rippling the net. What a run by Ngumoha, who is serenaded by the Kop for his other-worldly talent.
63 min: Right to left, across the face of the Villarreal box: Ngumoha, Gravenberch, Gakpo, Tsimikas. The latter whistles the ball back through the six-yard box, at the speed of light. Koumas misses it by inches, which is probably as well, as had the ball made any sort of contact, he may no longer have many of his facial features (nose, eyebrows, lips, chin, etc.). That was blootered, some would argue at an unnecessarily excitable velocity. Still, any touch, and it was a goal.
61 min: Nyoni’s vicious daisycutter flies inches wide of the right-hand post. Gulacsi probably had it covered, but he’d have required a strong wrist to keep that one out. Goal kick.
60 min: Villarreal need to change something, and they do. Mikautadze and Buchanan are replaced by Freeman and one-time Newcastle and Leicester winger Ayoze Pérez.
58 min: Mac Allister’s long-range effort is deflected wide right. He takes the corner himself. Veiga heads it clear. But Villarreal are sitting back now, inviting pressure, waiting for the opportunity to counter. A huge difference to the first half.
57 min: Wirtz dances his way down the left and checks back from the byline before spinning and shooting. Gulacsi is on point to claim. Wirtz has looked lively since coming on, following impressive outings against LASK and Brentford.
55 min: Tsimikas has his critics, but he’s never stopped tonight, battling for everything, one of the players whose energy finally kick-started Liverpool into action late in the first half. Now his low cross finds Koumas, whose selfless back-flick nearly tees up Gakpo; then his free kick from the left forces Gulacsi into some flapping the keeper just about gets away with. All of the momentum is with Liverpool now.
54 min: Ngumoha wins another corner down the right. Before it can be taken, Villarreal make a defensively minded switch, replacing Alberto Moleiro with erstwhile Spurs star Juan Foyth. And then the corner, which is a waste of everyone’s time.
53 min: Tsimikas and Mac Allister bustle their way down the left and tee up Gakpo, who threads a shot towards the bottom left. Easy enough for Gulacsi. “Allow me to be the 37th wag to suggest the last thing Virgil needs is to spend even more time gazing into a mirror,” quips Ian Copestake.
52 min: The last time Liverpool won a match from two down was, eerily, that aforementioned 2022 Champions League semi-final against Villarreal. Given the way the first half went, it’s perhaps too early to start dreaming about that circle coming back around.
50 min: Ngumoha, who looks totally at home at this level, sashays his way down the right and earns another corner. Again, nothing happens at the set piece. But this is so much better from Liverpool.
48 min: Nothing comes of the corner. Ngumoha is still fuming a bit. You can hardly blame him.
47 min: Ngumoha jinks through two challenges and into the Villarreal box from the right. That’s sensational. But before he can cock his leg to shoot, Gravenberch snatches the ball off him and aims towards the top right. The ball’s deflected wide. Ngumoha gives his team-mate a glance that can most charitably be described as brooding and enigmatic.
46 min: Looks as though Gravenberch is taking over at right-back for Liverpool.
Liverpool get the second half started. They’ve unsurprisingly made a change, perhaps surprisingly just the one. Florian Wirtz comes on for Ronald Araújo. Villarreal have also made a swap, sending on Tani Oluwaseyi for Nathan Saliba.
Half-time postbag. “Liverpool push up with all the speed and intensity of a World War I general nudging his model soldiers across a table top French field. And, unsurprisingly, they similarly get caught in no man’s land” – Niall Mullen
“How is it 2-2? But I’m here for it” – Stuart Wright
“In this of all matches I admire your commitment to the diacritics, sir. As a dire critic myself it speaks volumes of your dedication to the lingüística” = Ian Copestake
That is one heck of a double whammy from Liverpool. They spent most of that half losing nearly all of the midfield duels, to the point where Villarreal began running through their repertoire of feints and fancy flicks. The Spanish side in total control. But Liverpool nicked one back, and then a moment of brilliance from Rio Ngumoha changed everything. Liverpool fans will hope Virgil van Dijk spends the majority of the half-time break having a good look in the mirror.
HALF TIME: Liverpool 2-2 Villarreal
Liverpool have, for the most part, been abysmal. But now look!
GOAL! Liverpool 2-2 Villarreal (Araujo 45+2)
The corner’s half-cleared. Ngumoha picks up possession on the left. He checks back onto his right foot and sends an inswinger towards the far post. Cardona shepherds it out for a goal kick … or so he thinks, because he doesn’t realise Araujo is steaming in behind him! Araujo can’t miss with his header from a couple of yards, and he gets his reward for never giving up!
45 min +1: In the first and only added minute, Gravenberch stumbles his way into the box down the left and wins a corner despite falling over. And from that …
44 min: Gakpo and Tsimikas perform a mid-distance one-two down the left. Gakpo enters the box, chops his way past one challenge, and shoots from a tight angle. The shot is blocked bravely by Veiga, the ball hitting his arm, but there’s no way it’s a penalty. Arm tucked into side, back turned. No way.
43 min: Araujo embarks on a fine run down the right. He makes himself enough time and space to cross … but then blooters wildly into the Anfield Road end.
42 min: Nothing comes of the resulting corner, and Liverpool counter through Gakpo, whose run down the inside-left channel is brought to an ungainly halt by Mouriño, who goes into the book. Mac Allister aims the free kick towards the top left, but it’s always heading high and wide.
41 min: Mouriño is afforded too much time and space, 30 yards out, just to the right of centre. He eventually pearls a rising shot that Alisson is forced to tip over the bar. That was heading in. Van Dijk again too slow to come out to block. For the most part this season, he’s belied his 35 years; he’s showing them tonight.
39 min: Mac Allister wheechs a low long-distance drive inches wide of the bottom left. Gulacsi had it covered, to be fair.
38 min: That’s lifted the mood in Anfield all right. Will it rattle Villarreal, who were performing keepie-uppies and throwing dummies a few minutes ago, at all?
GOAL! Liverpool 1-2 Villarreal (Mac Allister 36)
The corner whipped in from the right. Mac Allister rises eight yards out, level with the near post, and flick-loops an unstoppable header across Gulacsi and into the left-hand side of the net. Oh my, how Liverpool needed that.
35 min: Gakpo sends a low cross in from the left. Koumas misses the ball by an inch. Veiga turns behind for a corner, from which …
34 min: Mikautadze has the opportunity to release Comesaña down the middle. Which he does, but a split second too late, and the flag pops up for offside. Araujo had hared back as emergency cover, to be fair, but otherwise, Liverpool were once again all over the show.
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