Owen Hargreaves was impressed with the performance of the three Liverpool players during the first leg of their Champions League semifinal tie with Villarreal. The former Manchester United and Manchester City midfielder gave the Liverpool midfield trio of Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Thiago Alcantara a perfect score for their performance during the 2-0 win over Villarreal. Club skipper Henderson was involved in the first goal after his cross was diverted into his own net by Ecuadorian left-back PervisEstupinanon 53 minutes before Senegalese star Sadio Mane added a second goal two minutes later.
Englishman Owen Hargreaves praised the aforementionedLiverpool midfielders while he was on BT Sports for theChampions League coverage of the semifinal first leg clash between the Reds and Villarreal. Fellow pundit Peter Crouch agreed with the assessment of the Liverpool midfielders as revealed by Owen Hargreaves. According to ex-Liverpool striker Crouch, Fabinho, Thiago and Henderson were unbelievable.
For the second leg, Thiago and Fabinho started the game, while Henderson came off the bench in the second half. Brazilian star Fabinho started the fightback for Liverpool after Villarreal had scored twice in the first half to draw level in the tie. The Villarreal goals were scored by BoulayeDia and former Arsenal midfielder Francis Coquelin. Fabinho pulled one back for theReds two minutes after the hour mark before goals from substitute Luis Diaz and Mane turned the game on its end. Villarreal ended the game with a man down after French midfielder Etienne Capoue received two yellow cards.
Liverpool were able to make it two Champions League finals in four seasons and three Champions League finals in five seasons with the 3-2 comeback win in the second leg and a 5-2 aggregate win. Liverpool will now face Real Madrid in the final in a repeat of the 2018 final which ended in a 3-1 victory for the Spanish team.