Liverpool came from two goals down to beat Villarreal 3-2 in Spain on Tuesday and advance to their third Champions League final in five years with a 5-2 aggregate victory.
Trailing 2-0 from the first leg, Villarreal sparked hopes of a remarkable turnaround in the return at the Estadio de la Ceramica after Boulaye Dia finished in the third minute and Francis Coquelin headed in another to level the tie at 2-2.
But Jurgen Klopp threw on Diaz for Diogo Jota at the interval to shake Liverpool into life and it worked, the visitors scoring three times in 12 minutes to kill off Villarreal’s revival and advance to their third champions league finals in five years.
Liverpool will await the winner of Real Madrid and Manchester City who play their second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday, with City leading 4-3 from the opener last week.
Either City or Madrid will offer a sterner test than Villarreal, but after a chastening experience at Anfield last week, Unai Emery’s side delivered a spirited performance that rattled Liverpool and showed why they knocked out both Juventus and Bayern Munich to reach the semi-finals.
Editing by Daniel Adejo