Liverpool were in serious trouble at half time at the Estadio de la Ceramica on Tuesday night, as the Reds were 2-0 down to a Villarreal side that had outplayed them for the first 45 minutes.
However, they recovered in stunning fashion to win 3-2 on the night and 5-2 on aggregate, which booked their place in the Champions League final on May 28.
Their second half turnaround was sparked by Jurgen Klopp‘s half time team talk, and Virgil van Dijk revealed what the coach said in the dressing room at the break.
“He said ‘play football, play the Liverpool way’,” Van Dijk told BT Sport.
“He told us to play the way we’ve been playing basically all season, to get on the ball, have a lot of movement in the box and behind the high line, but also to show how much we really want to go to the final.”
Mohamed Salah was also instrumental in the second half comeback, and hailed his side’s character at full time.
“It was tough in the first half, but then we went to the dressing room and [Jurgen Klopp] started talking and we talked to each other as well,” Salah told BT Sport.
“That character and personality in the dressing room shows that we are a top team, so that’s why we can strike back after losing 2-0 in the first half playing away.”
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Klopp’s post-match comments after the Villarreal game
The coach himself had his say, revealing how the English side managed to turn momentum back in their favour.
“We knew that in the first half they were very much on top of us man to man, but we didn’t comment on the physical aspect at the break,” Klopp said.
“I can’t tell you exactly what I told them. We talked about how we had to play football, to move and look for spaces.”
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