The Villarreal defence was brilliant
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Going into this fixture, Villarreal were expected to be the one with the upper hand based on their recent form. Their defence was the main topic of interest and they certainly lived up to those expectations.
Villarreal have the third best defence in La Liga, after all. With their trusted back four of Mario, Bailly, Ruiz and Costa, Villarreal put up another solid defence performance. Throughout the game, they stayed compact, particularly in the first half.
The defensive work of midfielder Pina stopped Liverpool from opening up the Yellow Submarines on numerous occasions. Bailly and Ruiz were rocks throughout, never being dragged from their position by Roberto Firmino. Pina, on the other hand also knew exactly when to drop with the two centre-backs to block space for Liverpool to attack and create holes.
Liverpool need to go all out scoring at Anfield in the second leg but with this defence of Villarreal, they’ll need to come up with a seriously good game plan, though it’ll be hard for the Spanish club to stop Liverpool from scoring for another 90 minutes.
