Villarreal midfielder Francis Coquelin says the team is not intending to be mere spectators in their Champions League semi-final clash at Anfield as the Spanish side plot to take it to Liverpool despite their status as underdogs.
Coquelin and company will visit Merseyside on Wednesday for the first leg of their last-four encounter with the Yellow Submarine boastin several former Premier League players among their ranks.
The French midfielder is one of those individuals, having previously spent time with Arsenal, and he insists that his side won't be intimidated by the atmosphere at the Reds' iconic stadium.
What did Coquelin say about Liverpool?
“Liverpool are probably the team that press best," he told the Guardian. "I can’t really see where their weaknesses are. They attack so well and now they have [Ibrahima] Konate competing with [Joel] Matip. The left-back and the right-back are like strikers basically.
"They have two players who fight for Ballon d’Or, [Mohamed] Salah and [Sadio] Mane. Now they’ve signed Luis Diaz and he settles in like he has been there five years. They’re the best team in Europe but, as a footballer, what do you want? To play this sort of game, travel around Europe.
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"We have a dream in the back of our heads to play a Champions League final. We know it’s tough but the whole team, the whole town, is excited. It’s difficult but we’ve got confidence: we knocked out Bayern Munich and Juventus and we’re going there to compete. We’re not going there just to look at Anfield."
Coquelin's path to Villarreal
The 30-year-old Frenchman made his Arsenal debut back in 2008, going on to make 160 appearances for the club by the time he departed nearly a decade later.
He joined Valencia in 2017 before making the switch to Villarreal in 2020, becoming a key piece of the club's midfield.
This season, Villarreal find themselves in the semi-final after taking down giants in Juventus and Bayern Munich, with former Gunners boss Unai Emery leading the club within one step of a Champions League semi-final.
Reflecting on their run so far, Coquelin says he believes that bayern underestimated Villarreal, and he hopes Liverpool make the same mistake.
“When you see something like that it gives you a bit of extra bite,” Coquelin says. “It was a little lack of humility, I would say. I can understand it a little bit: when you’re the bigger team you don’t do it on purpose but sometimes it’s natural to think: ‘Well, we’re playing against the easiest team.’ And as Dani said, you don’t know what can happen.
“They realised in the first leg, because we could have scored three or four. I thought they would think: ‘Maybe we talked a bit too much.’ But then they did exactly the same. So they didn’t learn their lesson. And all the chances we didn’t take in the first leg, we did in the second. We got one, and scored it. That’s why they got knocked out.
“But you go to the Allianz and it’s still difficult, you know. Especially when you miss so many chances in the first leg. I was a little bit … not scared, because I was convinced we would have chances, but you do think: ‘I hope we don’t regret this.’
"Luckily, that wasn’t the case, but we have to learn from that because I think Liverpool are stronger than Bayern. We have to take our chances because in two minutes they can punish you. They’re in a massive moment.”
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