By Gary Fulcher.

Liverpool will be hoping to overturn a 0-1 deficit when they the welcome Villarreal to Anfield on Thursday evening – 8.05pm kick off UK time – in the Europa League semi-final second leg tie. El Submarino Amarillo snatched a 92nd minute winner in the first leg at Estadio El Madrigal and celebrated as if they’d already sealed their place in the final with that narrow victory.

Liverpool have a minimum of 90 minutes to prove that those celebrations were premature.

Since the first leg in Spain, Villarreal won 2-0 at Valencia which has guaranteed them a place in next season’s Champions League. Liverpool suffered a 1-3 defeat at Swansea on Sunday in the Premier League meaning we are win-less in our last three in all competitions.

Villarreal are unbeaten in their last 12 Europa League games and haven’t lost on their travels in this competition since the opening group stage match against Rapid Vienna when they went down 1-2. Marcelino’s side also know that if they score, Liverpool will need to win by two clear goals which we are more than capable of doing but the Reds haven’t had the best of times against teams who set up defensively at Anfield.

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