How Villarreal’s “Rulli” Costly Mistakes Helped Liverpool To the 3rd UCL Final In 4 Years!
If the “village people” narrative commonly used to jokingly depict household enemies in places like Nigeria in West Africa was a Spanish thing, we could all safely assume that Villarreal CF suffered a terrible village people attack in this match.
Having lost the first leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final playoffs with English side Liverpool FC by two unreplied goals, the night could not have started better for the ‘Yellow Submarines.’
Hosting Liverpool at their Estadio de la Ceramica home, Villarreal looked to be on course for a major upset after racing into a 2-0 lead in just 40 minutes of the second leg played on Tuesday, May 3, 2022.
Boulaye Dia opened the scoring barely 3 minutes into the match after some good work in the box by Étienne Capoue, who knocked the ball back across the post for Dia to tap in. After a few other close shaves for Liverpool, the Yellow army extended their lead to two goals, as Capoue again turned provider for Francis Coquelin, who pounced on his cross to nod home the tie leveler.
Oh, it was looking very promising for Villarreal at this point until the second half began, and they imploded. After going two goals down, Liverpool needed only one goal to swing the game back in their favor, but they eventually got three thanks to their opponent’s goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli.
First, Rulli inexplicably allowed a hopeful long-distance shot by Liverpool’s Fabinho to squirm through his legs and into the back of the net. Then, just 5 minutes after his first mistake, Liverpool substitute Luis Diaz met a perfectly weighted cross by Trent Alexander-Arnold with an equally lovely header that somehow managed to go through the Argentine keeper’s legs again.
He wasn’t done for the night yet, though. Liverpool’s Keita attempted to play a through pass to Sadio Mane but slightly overhit the ball. Mane did not give up on the ball, though, and kept chasing it down. For some very bizarre reason, Rulli decided to come rushing out of his box to clear the ball but got beaten to it by Mane, who then had the most straightforward task of rolling the ball into an empty net.
All of the goals scored today by the ‘Reds’ could very well have been packaged with a lovely ribbon and hand-delivered to them at Anfield. We’re sure Jurgen Klopp and his boys would have been delighted even more than they were tonight.
After being quite dismal all through the first half, Liverpool’s resilience paid off, and now they’re headed to their third UCL Final in 4 years!
The match ended 2-3 tonight in favor of Liverpool, 2-5 on aggregate, and here are a few things we learned:
(1) Help can come to you from anywhere and when you’re least expecting it. Not saying that Villarreal’s keeper Rulli deliberately turned against his team tonight, but he perfectly embodies this life lesson and points tonight.
(2) Fortune favors the brave and consistent ones always! Klopp did not panic or switch to a defensive approach after conceding the first goal just 3 minutes into the match.
Instead, he kept trying to mount the pressure with his traditional high-pressing, high-octane, heavy metal football, and boy did it pay off!
Whatever the odds stacked up against you in life, don’t ever back down or try to switch into something that you’re not. Hold your ground, keep pushing, and it will happen for you in no time.
Liverpool will now face Premier League rivals Manchester City or Spanish giants Real Madrid in the final scheduled for May 28, 2022, at the iconic Stade de France, Paris, France.
