Denis Suarez found Adrian Lopez in the third minute of stoppage time to lift Villarreal to a 1-0 home win over Liverpool in Thursday’s first leg of their UEFA Europa League semifinal.
There wasn’t much enjoyable about the match for either side until late, but Liverpool looked set to head to Anfield in search of a win. Now they’ll need more.
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The timing was off early for Mexican attacker Jonathan dos Santos and Congolese striker Cedric Bakambu, and Simon Mignolet made a couple collections to get into the flow of the match.
Liverpool answered with a dangerous chance in the fifth minute, but Joe Allen’s only alley was a pass directly to keeper Sergio Asenjo.
Roberto Soldado knifed a bouncing shot wide of the far post in the 11th minute, and would later curl a shot around Kolo Toure that didn’t finish its dramatic bend inside the field of play.
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The Yellow Submarine had the best of possession, but the Reds were stout in defense with the exception of some slips on the wet turf.
Roberto Firmino was the most dangerous Liverpool attacker, saved off the woodwork just over an hour into the match.
There wasn’t much threat coming from either camp before Mignolet made a terrific save on Bakambu in the 87th minute.
And Alberto Moreno sprung a near 60-yard run past the Villarreal back line, but couldn’t put his left-footed blast on net1 - This will be the first meeting between Villarreal and Liverpool in Europe. New.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 28, 2016
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