Impressive Liverpool take huge stride towards another Champions League final

Reds beat Villarreal at Anfield and remain on course for unprecedented quadruple

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  Liverpool's Jordan Henderson celebrates after his cross took a deflection off Villarreal's Geronimo Rulli to give his side the lead in the Champions League semi-final first leg at Anfield on April 27. Getty

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  Jordan Henderson celebrates with team-mates after the first goal. Getty

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  Villarreal's Pervis Estupinan scores Liverpool's first with an own goal after deflecting a cross from Henderson. Action Images

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  Sadio Mane scores Liverpool's second goal. Reuters

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  Liverpool's Sadio Mane celebrates after scoring. EPA

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  Sadio Mane celebrates with Luis Diaz. AFP

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  Villarreal coach Unai Emery watches the action. EPA

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  Mohamed Salah controls the ball. Getty

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  Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp hugs Jordan Henderson as he leaves the pitch. AFP

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  Liverpool's Fabinho reacts during the game. Action Images

Liverpool are on the brink of a third Champions League final in five seasons after breaking Villarreal's resistance to win the first leg of their semi-final 2-0 at Anfield on Wednesday.

Two goals in two minutes undid Villarreal boss Unai Emery's defensive game plan as Pervis Estupinan deflected Jordan Henderson's cross into his own net before Sadio Mane slotted in a second.

The Reds remain on course for an unprecedented quadruple of Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup after the comfortable win.

And barring a huge upset when the sides meet again in southern Spain in six days' time, Liverpool's season will finish in Paris on May 28.

Former England defender Rio Ferdinand told BT Sport: "This is the best Liverpool team I’ve ever seen. They’re relentless with and without the ball. It’s the way they press teams, the energy, effort, application, you marvel at it.

"That [the quadruple] has got to be the aim. They are going to set themselves the target. If they achieve it they’re immortal, they are above anyone that has played the game in this country. Whether they can achieve it remains to be seen. But they’re ticking boxes along the way at the moment."

Midfielder Jordan Henderson added: "It was just important that we kept going and believe that we would eventually break them down. We did that with two good goals.

"First one was a bit lucky. Good build up but a bit lucky, in off the defender and keeper I think. We got that and it lifted the crowd. Majority of the game, the counter-press was really good. It made it difficult for them. But the game is still alive and it will be tough in Villarreal."

The population of Villarreal would fit inside Anfield but the 3,000 travelling support did their best to match the noise of the home support early on.

In stark contrast to the free-flowing thrills of Manchester City's 4-3 win over Real Madrid in the other semi-final on Tuesday, Emery's men followed the same tactic that saw them past Juventus and Bayern Munich by retreating behind the ball.

However, the Yellow Submarine could barely lay a glove on Jurgen Klopp's side as Liverpool just had to bide their time to make their dominance count.

The Reds have now scored 135 goals this season, but were held scoreless in a frustrating first 45 minutes.

Mane headed wide Mohamed Salah's pinpoint cross with the best opening.

The Senegalese also saw a deflected effort fly just wide and Villarreal goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli escaped unpunished with some sloppy handling from a number of speculative efforts.

Another long-range strike was the closest Liverpool came to breaking the deadlock before the break as Thiago Alcantara's sweet strike clipped the post.

The six-time European champions started the second half at a higher tempo and quickly began to punch holes in Villarreal's rearguard.

Fabinho's goal was ruled out for offside against Virgil van Dijk in the build-up.

Moments later, Anfield erupted as the error-prone Rulli finally cost the Spaniards with a feeble attempt at parrying Henderson's deflected cross.

The last thing the visitors could afford was the floodgates opening, but they were powerless to stop the waves of Liverpool attacks.

Salah was the architect with a perfectly weighted pass for Mane to prod past Rulli on 55 minutes.

The offside flag came to Villarreal's rescue once more to rule out Andy Robertson's strike.

Emery was hailed the "king of the cups" by Klopp for his stunning Europa League record, with one of his four triumphs in that competition coming as Sevilla boss against the German during his first season at Liverpool in 2016.

However, Liverpool are a different beast six years on and the limitations of a side sitting seventh in La Liga were shown up as they struggled to mount any sort of response to going behind.

Luis Diaz smashed across the face of goal as Liverpool threatened to kill the tie off with a third.

The English giants had to settle for a two-goal advantage, but they are yet to lose by a two-goal margin in 55 matches this season.