Villarreal faces next giant at Liverpool in CL semifinals

By JOSEPH WILSON
Associated Press

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Juventus and Bayern Munich learned the hard way that Villarreal is no pushover even in Europe’s elite competition. Now the club from a small town of 50,000 inhabitants in eastern Spain must get past one more giant standing in the way of a dream appearance in its first Champions League final. Liverpool hosts Villarreal on Wednesday at the always intimidating Anfield. Villarreal will hope to reproduce the upsets that it pulled off against Juventus in the round-of-16 and Bayern in the quarterfinals. Coach Unai Emery says “they are the favorites, but we have our strengths that will allow us to compete.”