Jurgen Klopp has hailed former Arsenal boss, Unai Emery, as ‘world-class’ ahead of his Liverpool side facing Villarreal in the Champions League semi-final on Wednesday night, as he told his pre-match press conference.
Back in 2019, Emery was being sacked by Arsenal, but fast forward to today, and he is now three games away from guiding Villarreal to Champions League glory.
The relentless goalscoring machine that is Liverpool currently stand in their way, but nothing will fear the Europa League champions.
They have already knocked out Juventus and Bayern Munich, so they will be preparing themselves to shock people further at Anfield tonight.
Klopp was beaten by Emery’s Sevilla side in the Europa League final in 2016, so there is some history there, as the German shared his thoughts on his counterpart.
“I have a lot of respect for Unai Emery and Villarreal before,” said Klopp. “I saw the games, obviously only with one eye against Bayern and Juve a little bit.
“Meanwhile, I (now) watch them properly. WOW! Impressive. Unai has obviously when you watch his team, he is a detailed-obsessed manager. He prepares for all situations in a game.
“It’s really, really good. Different ways to build up. Different ways to press. Different ways to react to different results. Really impressive.
“Unai is a world-class coach and he is doing an incredible job there.”
Emery was ridiculed during his time at Arsenal, and in truth, treated in a pretty harsh manner.
Whilst Arsenal have spent money and re-built since he was sacked by the club, they didn’t exactly surge straight forward when he left.
Mikel Arteta ended up, in his first full season at the club, finishing outside of the European places altogether.
Either way, it’s going to be interesting to see how things pan out for Emery in the Champions League and where he and Arsenal are in 12 months time.
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