Programme notesJordan Henderson: These are the games we all live for

The Reds take on Villarreal at Anfield tonight in the first leg of their third last-four tie in Europe’s leading club competition in the past five seasons.

In his notes for the official matchday programme, Henderson writes: “There are some things that you can never get tired of saying and this is definitely one of them – good evening and welcome to Anfield for our Champions League semi-final.

“No-one in the ground tonight, or watching at home on TV, will need me to tell them how big this is. These are the games that Liverpool FC – its players, staff and supporters – live for. The fact that this is our third semi-final since 2018 doesn’t diminish this or make it any less exciting. If anything, previous experiences of this stage of the competition only whet the appetite.

“As well as welcoming our own fans, I would also like to welcome Villarreal and their supporters. Having knocked out Bayern Munich in the previous round, their place in this stage of the Champions League is not only a great story for them, it is also richly merited and we will be giving them every bit of respect that they deserve.

“There is always a risk in football of being drawn in by glamour names and seeing clubs who don’t have that kind of reputation as somehow being an easier option. I really don’t get that. If you are in the last four of Europe’s toughest competition you can’t be anything other than top opposition and this is even more obvious when you’ve just eliminated one of the favourites.

“So if anyone wants to write off Villarreal because they’re not perceived to be a glamour name we will leave them to it. That is their mistake, but it won’t be ours. If we want to go through to the final then the reality is that we will have to defeat one of the best four performing teams in this season’s Champions League. It really is that simple.

“We will have to be at our best and we will need our supporters to be at their best. Any drop in standard at this level rarely ends well and we already know what can be achieved when we hit the heights together so doing so again has to be the target for this tie.”

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