Liverpool Manager Andoni Iraola
Liverpool Manager Andoni Iraola
Andoni Iraola held his pre-match press conference at Anfield on Monday, previewing Liverpool’s Champions League meeting with Villarreal.
The Reds host the Spanish side on Tuesday evening, kick-off 8pm, in their third league-phase fixture of the campaign.
Liverpool go into the match with a perfect record in Europe this season. Iraola’s side beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 at Anfield in September before winning 6-3 away at LASK last week, a result built on a Bradley Barcola hat-trick and headers from Ronald Araujo and Jeremie Frimpong.
Those results leave Liverpool with six points from two games, a strong platform for Iraola as he takes charge of a Champions League campaign for the first time in his managerial career.
The Reds arrive at this fixture on the back of a 2-1 win at Brentford in the Premier League on Friday. Iraola indicated he is weighing up changes to his starting line-up against Villarreal, with fixture congestion affecting player freshness.
“I am thinking of the best XI for Villarreal, but maybe it is not the one you think because some players are not fresh enough,” Iraola told reporters at Anfield.
“I prefer to play at home 100 per cent, but it’s true the games are different and we take it one by one. Now it is Villarreal; we focus and I know them very well.”
That familiarity runs deeper than tactics. Villarreal are managed by Inigo Perez, a man Iraola has known since their academy days together at Athletic Club.
“For me it’s a special game because Inigo is my friend,” Iraola said. “We know each other since the academy years in Athletic Club, we played with each other in the first team.”
The pair’s connection extends into coaching. Iraola appointed Perez as his assistant at Rayo Vallecano in 2022, shortly after Perez retired as a player.
“As soon as he retired, I was quick enough to grab him to help as an assistant,” Iraola explained.
When Iraola left Rayo Vallecano for Bournemouth in 2023, he tried to take Perez with him. The move collapsed after Perez was refused a work permit by British authorities.
“We tried to take him to England, he was here but he couldn’t work,” Iraola said.
Iraola described facing his former assistant in the Champions League as “a privilege,” adding that Perez “knows me very well, he knows everything.”
He also noted that the build-up to the match had briefly put their friendship on hold, with the pair having had no contact as the game approached.
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