The Thriller That Wasn’t A Thriller

October 21, 2026

Liverpool 4 Villarreal 3: The seven-goal thriller that wasn’t a thriller. Liverpool were probably worse in the first half an hour than they were against PSV last season. A didn’t know what B was doing and C hadn’t a clue. Two down and the Villareal fans were having a fiesta while Liverpool and Anfield were having a siesta. Then we came back to life when Mac Allister scored from the Greek Scousers corner. Then came Rio Ngumhoa. He created [I don’t use the word ‘assist’] a chance for ‘Big Ron’ Araujo to get us level just before the referee was going to blow the halftime whistle. I said to the guy behind me, “I don’t know how this is two-all” but he said he wasn’t interested in football he’d just brought the kids. Well, the kids were alright, well Rio was. When he departed from the stage with twenty minutes to go thanks to him, plus another Macca goal and one from Flo we were 4-2. Not bad. Strangely though, when Rio and Trey Nyomi bowed out the Spanish side came back and all the nerves inside me returned. I thought we’d sorted out some of our defensive deficiencies but apparently not. They pulled one back but thankfully we held on. If it was a thriller, it would be more like an Alfred Hitchcock nightmare version than a Spielberg Sci-Fi that had viewers on the edge of their seats.