Liverpool will host Villarreal at Anfield on Tuesday, October 20, in the third matchday of the UEFA Champions League league phase, bringing back a meeting that once decided who went to Paris. The two clubs met in the 2021/22 semifinal, when Liverpool won 2-0 at Anfield and 3-2 at La Cerámica to move on to the final.
That is why the fixture is drawing attention now. Liverpool arrive with two wins in two Champions League matches, having opened with a win against Atlético de Madrid and followed it with a 6-3 victory over LASK in Linz, while Villarreal come in after losing 3-2 to Borussia Dortmund before turning things around with a 3-1 comeback win over Napoli. The contrast is sharp: one side has been perfect in Europe, the other has had to recover from a rough start.
Alexander Isak gave Liverpool another reminder of their resilience on Saturday, scoring the decisive goal in a 2-1 comeback against Brentford after Keane Lewis-Potter had put Brentford ahead before halftime and Víctor Muñoz had equalized. That result lifted Liverpool to 12 points in the Premier and kept their momentum intact heading into a match that has the feel of a test more than a routine group-stage night.
Villarreal, meanwhile, arrive with questions of their own. Under Íñigo Pérez, they had only two points in their first five LaLiga matches, then drew 0-0 with Elche at La Cerámica on Saturday to stay ninth with 9 points. Their European results have been better, but the gap between that comeback against Napoli and the more difficult domestic form is still hard to ignore.
What happens next is straightforward: the old semifinal pairing is back, and this time it comes with Liverpool trying to extend a perfect start and Villarreal trying to show that their European recovery is real. At Anfield, that is enough to make Tuesday’s match matter before a ball is even kicked.
