For Liverpool, a 10th European Cup final appearance beckons and a shot at winning the tournament for the seventh time. It was a night when their class told, specifically the control and composure that has seen them sweep all before them since the turn of the year, raising the prospect of an unprecedented quadruple.
Never in doubt? Not exactly. The first half had been an ordeal for Jürgen Klopp and his players, their first-leg advantage wiped out as Villarreal ran riot. They scored through Boulaye Dia and Francis Coquelin and the crazy thing was that the team seventh in La Liga, with little experience of these kinds of nights, could have had more.
