Liverpool 'must be ready to suffer' in their Champions League battle with Villarreal

Premier League club go into Tuesday's semi-final second leg in Spain defending a 2-0 lead

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

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

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

Sadio Mane scores Liverpool's second goal. Reuters

Liverpool's Sadio Mane celebrates after scoring. EPA

Sadio Mane celebrates with Luis Diaz. AFP

Villarreal coach Unai Emery watches the action. EPA

Mohamed Salah controls the ball. Getty

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

Liverpool's Fabinho reacts during the game. Action Images

Jurgen Klopp has said that his Liverpool team “have to be ready to suffer” if they want to reach this season's Champions League final.

The Premier League club take on Villarreal in Tuesday's semi-final second leg in Spain defending a 2-0 from the first game at Anfield.

Liverpool remain in the hunt for what would be a historic trophy quadruple and have lost only three times in all competitions this term. And while they remain in pole position to secure their latest euro final spot, Klopp has warned his players they must prepare themselves for a difficult night at El Madrigal.

“With all these things during the season, obviously with the situation we are in, we must have done something right, that is clear,” said the German on Monday.

“But the problem in our job is everything’s perfect until the next game starts on the wrong foot and all of a sudden the game gets a different dynamic.

“It is good to know – and it is more a feeling inside, not that we are flying constantly and high-fiving here and there – we are in a good moment.

“But my only concern is what we do [on Tuesday] and we have to be ready to suffer but not going 1-0 down or whatever – that can happen in football matches – but giving the game the right direction.

“Let’s think they have the first shot on target, crowd goes up, each challenge, crowd goes up and that is how it is.”

Klopp said a prime example of this was during their narrow Premier League victory at Newcastle United on Saturday. “The crowd was obviously very passionate but we did not let it happen, which was the biggest quality of this game,” he added.

How Villarreal and Liverpool reached the semi-finals

HOW VILLARREAL AND LIVERPOOL REACHED CL SEMI-FINALS - GROUP F: September 14, 2021 - Villarreal 2 (Trigueros 39', Danjuma 73') Atalanta 2 (Freuler 6', Gosens 83'). Villarreal midfielder Dano Parejo said: “Of course, we wanted to win and get off to a winning start at home ... but little by little we were able to start playing our football. I’m happy with the effort our boys put in." Getty

GROUP B: September 15, 2021 - Liverpool 3 (Tomori og 9', Salah 48', Henderson 69') AC Milan 2 (Rebic 42', Diaz 44'). Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said: "We started incredibly well. We played a super, super game. An intense game but football wise as well. It is deserved but we had 10 minutes where Milan nearly changed the whole tie." Getty

GROUP B: September 28, 2021 - Porto 1 (Taremi 74') Liverpool 5 (Salah 18', 60', Mane 45'), Firmino 77', 81'). Klopp said: "First and foremost the most important thing is the result. It is a massive one away at Porto. Winning, and the way we won, makes it better. It was good in lots of moments." Getty

GROUP F: September 29, 2021 - Manchester United 2 (Telles 60', Ronaldo 90'+5) Villarreal 1 (Alcacer (53'). Villarreal defender Pau Torres said: "We're annoyed. The game was basically over, we just needed to see it out and we didn't. We need to learn from this. We were impeccable before that ... being better than Man Utd at Old Trafford." Reuters

GROUP B: October 19, 2021 - Atletico Madrid 2 (Griezmann 20', 34') Liverpool 3 (Salah 8', pen 78'minutes , Keita 13'). Klopp said: "A tough game which we expected. Did we expect it to be that defensive? Probably not. It was not so easy. We played a really solid second half in a tough game with intense football from both teams." EPA

GROUP F: October 20, 2021 - Young Boys 1 (Elia 77') Villarreal 4 (Pino 6', Moreno 16', Moreno 88', Chukwueze 90'+). Villarreal manager Unai Emery said: "They put a lot of players in the box, and we knew that our goalkeeper was going to have a lot of work today. Rulli did great and we are happy for him, he really helped the team." EPA

GROUP F: November 2, 2021 - Villarreal 2 Capoue 36', Danjuma 89') Young Boys 0. Villarreal midfielder Dani Parejo said: "These two consecutive wins are very important for us. We're playing at home in front of our fans and winning today meant we are near the top of the group. There are two very difficult games left, but we believe in ourselves." AFP

GROUP B: October 19, 2021 - Liverpool 2 (Jota 13', Mane 21') Atletico Madrid 0. Klopp said: "I think the game was nearly perfect. We scored the goals in the right moments. I didn't expect we would be through after four games but the boys did it and it's really well deserved." AP

GROUP F: November 23, 2021 - Villarreal 0 Manchester United 2 (Ronaldo 78', Sancho 90'). Villarreal midfielder Emery said: "I'll take positives from the 60 or 70 minutes that we were the better side than the favourites tonight. In the end, they were better and we couldn't force a draw after going behind. These things happen and we now need to focus on trying to qualify against Atalanta." EPA

GROUP B: Novmeber 24, 2021 - Liverpool 2 (Thiago 52', Salah 70') Porto 0. Klopp said: "We could have done better and been more calm in the first half but we were a bit hectic. That is not unusual when you put a team out that has not played together a lot. Thiago's goal, wow! It is so important, so many good things happened tonight." EPA

GROUP B: December 7, 2021 - AC Milan 1 (Tomori 28') Liverpool 2 (Salah 36'), Origi 55'). Klopp said: "What the boys did tonight I could not be more proud. It was an incredible game. I am so happy. The performance was outstanding. Having 21 shots, so many situations where we played outstandingly well." EPA

GROUP F: December 9, 2021 - Atalanta 2 (Malinovskyi 71', Zapata 80') Villarreal 3 (Danjuma 3', 51', Capoue 42'). Villarreal midfielder Etienne Capoue: "The key was to be clinical tonight. We did that really well. Every opportunity we had, we scored. That's the most important thing in football. Big teams do that and we did that tonight. We are really proud." EPA

LAST-16 FIRST LEG: February 16, 2022 - Inter Milan 0 Liverpool 2 (Firmino 75'), Salah 83'). Liverpool defender Andy Robertson said: "We need to be better than we were tonight to make sure we reach the last eight, but we have the benefit of having two goals. If we don't put in a good performance [at Anfield] we won't be through." AP

LAST-16 FIRST LEG: February 22, 2022 - Villarreal 1 (Parejo 66') Juventus 1 (Vlahovic 1'). Capoue said: "It's a bit of frustration as we need to win these games at home, but we played a good game. It's really tough to score against a side like Juventus, but we did that and we believe we can go through. It'll be tough, but we can do it." Reuters

LAST-16 SECOND LEG: March 8, 2022 - Liverpool 0 Inter Milan 1 (Martinez 61'). Liverpool win 2-1 on aggregate. Klopp said: "The art of football is to lose the right games. I still hate it, but if there was any game we could have afforded to lose it was this one because the main target of this competition is to get through. I'm really happy ... because when we saw the draw it was 'OK, that's a tough one'." Reuters

LAST-16 SECOND LEG: March 16, 2022 - Juventus 0 Villarreal 3 (Moreno pen 78'), Torres 85', Danjuma pen 90'+2). Villarreal win 4-1 on aggregate. Villarreal defender Pau Torres said: "Not even in our best planning sessions for the game did we think we'd win with that scoreline. We knew they'd have chances. [Villarreal goalkeeper] Rulli was great and we were a little lucky, but you need that." EPA

QUARTER-FINAL FIRST LEG: April 6, 2022 - Benfica 1 (Nunez 49') Liverpool 3 (Konate 17', Mane 34', Díaz 87'). Klopp said: "Coming here and winning an away game in the Champions League is tough. Obviously, Benfica fought for their lives. We could have scored in the last minute - the fourth one would be nice but we're not in dreamland here. EPA

QUARTER-FINAL FIRST LEG: April 6, 2022 - Villarreal 1 (Danjuma 8') Bayern Munich 0. Villarreal winger Arnaut Danjuma said: "Champions League nights are incomparable. We can still be so much better than we've shown today. Then again, if you win 1-0 against Bayern and can still improve, that's a positive. Unai [Emery] is a tactical mastermind. We're confident in him and he's confident in us." Reuters

QUARTER-FINAL SECOND LEG: April 12, 2022 - Bayern Munich 1 (Lewandowski 52') Villarreal 1 (Chukwueze 88'). Villarreal win 2-1 on aggregate. Emery said: "It's an extraordinary feeling, it was not easy for us. We are moving forward step by step ... but our goal before this game was not to give a good image of us, it was to qualify. To achieve something, you have to do important things and beat the favourites." Getty

QUARTER-FINAL FIRST LEG: April 6, 2022 - Liverpool 3 (Konate 21', Firmino 55', 65') Benfica 3 (Ramos 32'), Yaremchuk 73', Nunez 82'). Liverpool win 6-4 on aggregate. Klopp said: "The day we qualify for the Champions League semi-final and I'm not happy please come and knock me out. It was not exactly what we wanted but ... we are through and that's all that matters." EPA

“It was not a show of football brilliance or whatever. We had our moments and of course could have scored more goals. But how clear-cut the performance was – that was incredible and that is what we have to be.

“Yes, emotional. Yes, ready to play the best game ever, but knowing it will just not happen in all moments. Suffering doesn’t mean you suffer for long, it means you suffer [clicks fingers] and then react.”

Klopp added that “maturity and experience” will be important but not decisive factors. “They will try to play much more football than we allowed them in the first game,” he said.

“Unai will surely try to adapt a few things. It will be really interesting. Maturity is important but not the only thing.

“Everything we are is required [on Tuesday]. We have to be ready to play a top game because they will go for us. They will try to play much more football than we allowed them in the first game.”

Klopp revealed that forward Roberto Firmino has started running again after a foot injury but was still experiencing pain and will not play in Spain.