Villarreal boss Inigo Perez admitted his team were swept up by the emotion of a Champions League night at Anfield as they suffered a 4-3 defeat to Liverpool after leading 2-0.
George Mikautadze and Sergi Cardona put the Spanish side 2-0 up by the half-hour, but Liverpool were level at half-time through Alexis Mac Allister and Ronald Araujo. Mac Allister scored again in the second half, substitute Florian Wirtz also netted, and a Tanitoluwa Oluwaseyi consolation saw the game end in a home win on Tuesday evening.
Turning point at Anfield
Perez believes the turning point came when the Anfield crowd responded to Mac Allister heading in a Kostas Tsimikas corner on 36 minutes.
“There were many simple details which meant Liverpool could improve emotionally to get into the game,” said the Villarreal boss. “They almost peg you back and you lose that control you have in the first half.
“I don’t like to talk about individuals or specify these details as it’s a joint collective effort. I don’t know how to express it. I don’t think it’s anything other than football.
Emotion proves decisive
“When you play at Anfield these things can happen, we have seen it many times when a goal is scored here you can feel that reaction. We felt everything when they made it 2-1 and then they equalised. We mentioned it to the players at half-time. That’s part of the emotion and we didn’t know how to manage it tonight.
“The key moment was when they equalised to make it 2-2 just before half-time. We had a fantastic first half, but the mentality and emotion drops and theirs grows and it affects you.”
Late rally not enough
Despite falling 4-2 behind, Villarreal finished strongly and were given hope of an unlikely point by Oluwaseyi’s late strike.
“I don’t think we were close to getting hammered. If we are able to correct simple but elite details we would be close to winning these type of games on these type of stages,” Perez added.
“But I do believe we were able to remain in the game until the very end. But if you score three goals and play very well and end up taking home a defeat, where you have to analyse it is just on the errors and mistakes that we made.
“Rio Ngumoha had a great game but also may other players played well, both sets of players.”
