Another famous night in Europe for Unai Emery as Aston Villa beat Lille on penalties; West Ham’s Europa League disappointment is a sign of their progress; Jeremie Frimpong settles Bayer Leverkusen nerves at the London Stadium.
Light at the end of the Liverpool tunnel?
Mohamed Salah scored from the penalty spot
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Mohamed Salah scored from the penalty spot in a 1-0 win, which wasn’t enough to send Liverpool through.
European success would have been high on Jurgen Klopp’s wish list in his endmost season. A bitter pill to swallow after guiding Liverpool to four finals across a nine-year reign. It’s been a punishing few weeks.
Few positives can be immediately gleaned from a night where Klopp was forced to unceremoniously part ways with European competition for good, but there was enough to point towards there being life in Liverpool yet.
Europe is over but the Premier League is alive, despite the Reds handing agency to Manchester City in recent weeks. The argument has been that too many of Liverpool’s big-hitters have been underperforming, causing a dip at the exact time in the season where dips are punishable.
Perhaps, then, narrowing the focus might turn out to be a good thing. Trent Alexander-Arnold returned triumphantly to the starting XI, and was the most proficient player on the park, while Mo Salah showed glimpses of his brilliance with a well-taken penalty and some nice interchange with Luis Diaz.
Klopp’s European adventures may have met an untimely end but reward can still be had, starting with a trip to Fulham, live on Sky Sports, on Sunday. Potential for light at the end of a difficult tunnel.
Another famous night for Emery in Europe
Aston Villa beat Lille on penalties after Matty Cash scored a late goal to level to Europa Conference League quarter-final tie.
Lille extended their imperious home record, but depart vanquished by Villa. Against the odds, Unai Emery’s side book their place in the Europa Conference League semi-finals.
Make no mistake, this was a sub-par performance from the tournament favourites at the Stade Pierre Mauroy. The team that sucker punched Premier League title-chasing Arsenal on Sunday looked to have left their guile in north London.
They were not deserving of victory, though, as they were outplayed for the majority of the second leg in France, but as has been the case time and again, Emi Martínez provided the heroics in the shoot-out.
It was heartbreak for Lille who were magnificent, but it was Villa’s night. Emery knows there is still a long way to go in this tournament, but a first European semi-final since the 1981/82 season awaits – and we all know how that ended.
Ezri Konsa was magnificent up against Lille dangerman Jonathan David while the substitutes Leon Bailey and Jhon Duran had a big impact off the bench. Emery will be concerned at the manner of how his side defended set-pieces all evening, but all that can wait for another day.
The Spaniard, so prolific in the Europa League with Sevilla and Villarreal, has now won the last eight quarter-finals he has managed. Emery will surely now be eyeing another European trophy.
