Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has saluted a "wonderful night" and a "brilliant game" after the Reds put Villarreal to the sword 3-0 at Anfield this evening to beat the Spanish side 3-1 on aggregate to reach the Europa League final.
The start from both sides, at Anfield and amid a fierce atmosphere, was frantic, with each showing high energy.
Liverpool were the side to pull ahead as Villarreal struggled to cope and in the seventh minute a Roberto Firmino ball deflected off Bruno and went into the Yellow Submarine net.
The Reds were on top and Adam Lallana came close to making it 2-0 in the 14th minute.
Villarreal did carry a threat however and Mario Gaspar saw an effort saved comfortably by Simon Mignolet in the 20th minute. The visitors had another effort on the stroke of half time, but the Reds went in 1-0 up.
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Liverpool took a firm grip of the tie just after the hour mark when Firmino played in Daniel Sturridge, who made no mistake.
And matters got worse for Villarreal in the 71st minute when Victor Ruiz received his second yellow card.
Villarreal effectively had any hopes of a comeback properly killed off in the 82nd minute when Lallana was on hand to convert from close range.
It ended 3-0 to Liverpool on the night, booking a spot in the final against Sevilla in Basel.
And Klopp is overjoyed, saying on BT Sport: "Wonderful night, brilliant game from my side. What a performance. The first half an hour was a big emotion. It was great.
"The last 15 minutes of tthe first half we lost patience. The second half plan was to keep going with the emotional football, but using the brain a bit more and in the end brilliant.
"Everyone spoke a lot about this team before I came here.
"It was all about quality and not good transfers, I came here because I thought they had a nice squad but now we are in the final – Basel – a longer season, but it's good now."
