Liverpool come from two down to beat Villarreal 4-3

Two down, and still the better side by the only measure that counts

Liverpool beat Villarreal 4-3 at Anfield, and the scoreline undersells how far behind they had fallen to get there. Georges Mikautadze had Villarreal ahead inside four minutes, Sergi Cardona doubled it in the 29th, and by half time Liverpool had drawn level. It finished as a win for Liverpool, seven goals in all, four of them theirs.

This was matchday 3 of the league phase of the UEFA Champions League, and Villarreal had travelled to Anfield with recent European form of their own, a win over Napoli in their previous Champions League outing suggesting a side capable of causing the sort of damage Mikautadze and Cardona duly caused. That Liverpool overturned it anyway is the story, not a footnote to it.

Villarreal led for most of the first half before Liverpool ever led at all; Ronald Araújo's equaliser in first-half stoppage time made it 2-2 before the break, which meant the match turned not once but twice more after that, Alexis Mac Allister putting Liverpool 3-2 up in the 65th minute and Florian Wirtz making it 4-2 three minutes later, and Tani Oluwaseyi pulled one back for Villarreal in the 87th.

The goals that settled it

The match turned between the 65th and 68th minutes. Florian Wirtz had replaced Ronald Araújo at the break; Villarreal made their own half-time change, sending on Tani Oluwaseyi for Nathan-Dylan Saliba. Then Liverpool's chances started arriving in clusters: Wirtz with four shots in the match, two on target, Cody Gakpo with three, Rio Ngumoha with two, Mac Allister with five attempts and two on target, the volume itself a kind of pressure Villarreal's back line could not keep absorbing forever.

Mac Allister broke it in the 65th minute, his second of the match, converting from Rio Ngumoha's pass to put Liverpool ahead for the first time. Wirtz followed three minutes later, teed up by Gakpo, scoring 23 minutes after his introduction and turning a half time scramble into daylight. From there Liverpool led for the rest of the match.

Wirtz's goal mattered beyond the scoreline: it was his first for Liverpool in all competitions this season after seven appearances in the Premier League and two in Europe without one. Gakpo now has two goals and five assists in his own seven appearances across competitions, with Ngumoha supplying two assists on the night. Mac Allister's brace took his season tally to four goals in 11 appearances, the kind of repeat contribution that stops a result looking like an accident.

The match, phase by phase

The opening act belonged entirely to Villarreal. Georges Mikautadze scored inside four minutes, and Alberto Moleiro was booked for a foul in the 27th minute.

The rest of the first half carried the match's real tension. Sergi Cardona made it 0-2 in the 29th minute, assisted by Nathan-Dylan Saliba, 25 minutes after Mikautadze's opener; Alexis Mac Allister pulled one back in the 36th from Konstantinos Tsimikas's pass, 11 minutes before Ronald Araújo's stoppage time equaliser squared it at 2-2, Liverpool's recovery coming astonishingly quickly once it started. Santiago Mouriño was booked in between, in the 41st minute. Half time arrived with the sides level at 2-2, the contest reset rather than decided.

The closing stretch was Villarreal's reply, and it came through players introduced from the bench. Juan Foyth had replaced Alberto Moleiro in the 54th minute. Tani Oluwaseyi, on since half time for Nathan-Dylan Saliba, scored in the 87th minute, 42 minutes after coming on, with Ayoze Pérez, himself a substitute for Georges Mikautadze, supplying the assist. Pérez had one goal and four assists this season in 11 appearances; Oluwaseyi had two goals in eight. Neither tally was enough to turn a consolation into anything more threatening than that.

The table, the meetings, and where both go next

Liverpool arrived fifth in the league phase table with two wins from two, and Villarreal sat 15th. The win took Liverpool top, three wins from three and nine points, while Villarreal dropped to 19th. Liverpool were without Conor Bradley, Dominik Szoboszlai, Federico Chiesa, Giovanni Leoni, Hugo Ekitiké, Jeremie Frimpong and Wataru Endo, all missing through injury or absence, while Villarreal were without Nicolas Pépé.

This was the fifth meeting between the clubs, Liverpool winning four, Villarreal one, with no draws, the two sides not having met at all in the 365 days before this one. The previous meeting, in May 2022, also went Liverpool's way, 3-2 away at Villarreal in the same competition. Liverpool move on to Liverpool v Brighton at home in the Premier League; Villarreal travel to Valencia v Villarreal in La Liga. For Villarreal, Tuesday leaves plenty still to repair before then.