Call it luck, chance, or football intelligence, Villarreal have the combination of all the three. For a team that only qualified for the UEFA Champions League via winning the Europa League title at the expense of Premier League giants, Manchester United, they have outperformed themselves to reach this stage of the competition. Their way towards the UCL semi-final has not been easy as they have had to be ruthless in their pursuit not showing any mercy even to the ‘big boys’ of Europe. In this season's campaign alone, they have hammered Manchester United, and Atalanta to finish second in their group, one point behind the group leaders. 

Their aggressiveness did not stop at the group stage as they went ahead to draw with Italian powerhouse, Juventus in the first leg of their round of 16 tie before mercilessly hammering them 3-0 in the return fixture at the Allianz Stadium in Turin. As if that was not enough of a surprise, they went ahead to enjoy their quarter-final battle against Bayern Munich, the German machine as they handed them a 1-0 beating at the Estadio de la Ceramica before holding them to a 1-1 draw at the Allianz Arena. That victory over the Bundesliga reigning champions gave them a ticket into the semi-finals of the competition.

The yellow submarines are now set to square it out with a Liverpool side who are in obsession to achieve a quadruple chase by winning the EFL Carabao Cup(already won), FA Cup(already qualified for the final), EPL(sitting one point behind leaders, Manchester City) and the UCL. It will be an enormous uphill assignment to face such an ambitious side but Villarreal are not a team short of surprises and potential. Unai Emery might not have had much of a successful reign at the helm of Paris Saint Germain and Arsenal but he is surely showing his brilliance by outsmarting and outclassing European opponents who in their eyes might easily have written off his side as the underdogs. Emery brilliance in Spain dates way back to the 2010s even being nicknamed ‘cup king’ after he won the Europa League three consecutive times in 2014, 2015, and 2016 with Valencia before adding a fourth this year with Villarreal. 

Jurgen Klopp, one of the best managers in the world will be very wary if not having chills as he goes into tomorrow's game against Villarreal with his Liverpool side knowing very well that no team has sent big clubs into the UCL football oblivion this season than his much-awaited opponent. Football fans, will however seat back and enjoy a match that puts at odds two of the world's best football managers.