Villarreal

Hello, and welcome to The Athletic's coverage of tonight's Champions League semi-final second leg between Villarreal and Liverpool.

Klopp has made five changes to the team that narrowly beat Newcastle in Saturday's early kick-off. Those in yellow are preparing for arguably the biggest night in their club's history this evening. Torrential rain earlier today looked as though it would affect the game but the groundsmen at El Madrigal have worked their magic. Meanwhile, their opponents have to deal with all the pressure, could that be a deciding factor? You could certainly tell that Villarreal were missing their main talisman in the first leg and Emery will be relieved that Moreno has been passed fit to start. Liverpool fans will not need reminding but the Reds have not won a European semi-final away leg since 1985. Unsurprisingly, Alexander-Arnold is back in his natural habitat tonight: on the right-hand side of the Liverpool defence. Regardless of the success in the next few weeks, Klopp signalled his intent to continue his progress on Merseyside by agreeing a new contract last week. The other former Premier League stars to watch out for in the hosts' squad include Foyth, Lo Celso, Capoue, Coquelin and Iborra. El Madrigal is bouncing and those fans in yellow have never had better reason to celebrate! Villarreal are all over their English opponents at every opportunity, it will be interesting to see whether they can maintain the intensity. Liverpool will eventually find their rhythm but they need to find it quickly or the tie could soon be level.

Minute-by-minute report: Can Liverpool defend their first-leg lead and reach the final for the third time in five years? Find out with Rob Smyth.

24 min Salah shoots just wide from 15 yards after a bit of a scramble in the area, though the referee had blown for something or other. 34 min This has been Liverpool’s worst performance in a while - certainly since the first half at the Etihad and probably a lot longer than that. Villarreal need to make the most of their dominance. 26 min The pitch is playing well enough despite all the rain. Normally that would be a bad thing for Liverpool, but at the moment it suits them. 56 min A corner is half cleared to Thiago, who shoots straight at Rulli from the edge of the area. Also, Thiago is the guy you want when you’re in the ascendancy but can he dig you out of a hole?” Both men ended up in a heap, and on first viewing it looked a really tight call, but replays showed it was a clean bit of keeping from Alisson. If anything, Lo Celso fouled him. They have been outplayed, outsmarted and outfought by Villarreal, who are level in the tie thanks to goals from Boulaye Dia and Francis Coquelin. Join us in 15 minutes for the second half. Again it came from a cross, this time by Capoue on the right. It’s interesting that both Everton and Villarreal have targeted Robertson and Alexander-Arnold in recent weeks, with a reasonable amount of success. 57 min Diaz shins a scissor kick over the bar.

Roberto Firmino remains sidelined as Liverpool face Villarreal in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final tie tonight.

He added: “We had the issues with a stomach bug – they are all back. Klopp has no lingering effects from a stomach bug that has been in camp of late. The Brazilian has travelled after resuming running but won’t play at the Estadio de la Ceramica, where Liverpool head holding a commanding two-goal lead courtesy of a dominant first-leg win at Anfield last week.