Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk claims the Reds need to be at their best to get past Villarreal in the Champions League semi finals.
Jurgen Klopp’s side host the Yellow Submarine in their last four first leg tie on April 27 as part of their push for a potential quadruple of four major trophies this season.
Liverpool trail Manchester City by a point in the Premier League title race and face rivals Chelsea in next month’s FA Cup final.
However, Dutch international van Dijk stated the Merseyside giants will not underestimate the threat of Unai Emery’s visitors at Anfield.
“We don’t listen if they tell us we’re favourites or not”, as per reports from EFE.
“We play on Wednesday as we play every game, going out to try to win and, if we can, reach the final.
“It will be very difficult, Villarreal is a very difficult team. I saw the games against Bayern Munich and they’re fantastic defensively.
“The players work hard, have a lot of experience and, above all, play like a collective. There are no easy rivals in a semi-final.
“We are aware of the difficulty of these games and our rivals. The return leg in Spain is going to be very hard and we expect it to be very intense.”
Liverpool head into the game on the back of a 2-0 local derby win over Everton and van Dijk is set to make his 42nd club start in all competitions this season.
Klopp is unlikely to make too many changes from their derby victory with skipper Jordan Henderson potentially coming into freshen up the midfield unit.
