Liverpool vs Villarreal not fancied to provide a repeat of Man City-Real Madrid fireworks
- Paul Okey
- 27 April 2022
Bookies offering three-figure odds on a 4-3 home win for Liverpool in Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Villarreal.
Two goals inside the first 11 minutes, seven goals in all and a Panenka penalty, the Champions League semi-final, first leg clash between Manchester City and Real Madrid had it all.
But what price a repeat when Liverpool face Villarreal in their first-leg encounter?
Well, according to the bookies, and in particular SkyBet, it's 100/1 that Liverpool win the tie 4-3.
However, before you dismiss the chances of lightning striking twice out of hand, you should be aware the Reds do have form when it comes to high-scoring semi-final encounters.
Liverpool's 5-2 win over Roma in 2018 shares the record with City-Real and Ajax-Bayern Munich in 1995 (also 5-2) for the most goals scored in a Champions League semi-final.
On that occasion, Mohamed Salah and Robert Firmino both scored twice with Sadio Mane also on target. Liverpool to beat Villarreal and Salah to score two or more goals is 9/2.
Villarreal boss Unai Emery's last head to head with Jurgen Klopp also produced a classic. Taking charge of Arsenal for an EFL Cup round-of-16 clash in October 2019, Emery saw Divock Origi score a spectacular injury-time leveller to tie the scores at 5-5 before Liverpool triumphed 5-4 on penalties.
The Reds have yet to be involved in a 4-3 this season but have featured in three games that finished 3-3, the last of which came in the previous round at home to Benfica.
One of the other two 3-3s also came in knockout action, with the Merseysiders going on to overcome Leicester City on penalties in the EFL Cup after the two sides couldn't be separated in normal time.
And for those who may have missed Tuesday night's explosive tie but are determined to catch the action in the second semi-final, there is a contrasting bet which may be worth some interest.
For the laws of football watching decree that having missed out on an absolute classic you should then be forced to sit through 90 minutes of turgid rubbish - a 0-0 draw is priced at 14/1.
