Villarreal coach, Unai Emery, has made an honest confession about Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp.

Emery admitted that Klopp is a very successful top-level coach and he is going to make things very difficult for Villarreal when they clash with Liverpool.

Emery’s men will face Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League semi-final tie later this month.

Both Villarreal and Liverpool eliminated Bayern Munich and Benfica, respectively, in the Champions League last-8 a few days ago.

Speaking ahead of Villarreal’s LaLiga tie with Getafe on Saturday, Emery was asked about Villarreal’s future tie with Liverpool at his press conference and he took the opportunity to praise Klopp.

The former Arsenal manager said: “He [Klopp] is intelligent and he is very good! His career speaks for itself. I had the chance to meet him in meetings when he coached Dortmund and I Valencia. It was at that time that I started going to coach meetings in Nyon. And then we clashed. He is intelligent. He is a very good coach and he has a great team. It’s a perfect cocktail.

He faced Villarreal in the semi-finals of the Europa League in 2016”. Villarreal beat them here (1-0) but Liverpool won in the return (3-0). We, in the final with Sevilla, were trailing at halftime (0-1), they were better than us, but we had a great second half and crushed them with a 3-1 result. And then I went to England. With Arsenal, at Liverpool, I left Anfield with a painful defeat. So I have known everything.

When we are in the semi-finals, it is because we deserve it. We don’t get here by chance. I thank Jürgen Klopp for these words, I did not expect less, in the sense that in this meeting, he will have intelligent and very respectful messages, which we will have, of course, also for them. Firstly because they have a great team and because Klopp is a successful, very successful, top-level coach and he is going to make things very, very, very difficult for us.”