Marcelino indicated that his Villarreal side were not as easily beaten by Liverpool as the scoreline suggests.

The Reds defeated the Spanish side 3-0 in the Europa League semi-final second leg at Anfield on Thursday night and although the visiting manager admitted Jurgen Klopp's side were impressive, he felt that perhaps they were on the borderline of overstepping the mark in terms of their tackling.

Marcelino also suggested that Liverpool, for all their dominance, failed to create scoring chances despite the fact the stats show they had 12 shots on target.

"Things didn't work out how we had planned them. It hit us hard conceding that early goal, it was a hammer blow," Marcelino said.

"It was tough against an opponent who played with a huge amount of intensity, maybe on the margins of the rules at times but it was allowed.

"Liverpool played better than us but for all their superiority they didn't create too many chances.

"When we got to the sending off it was pretty much game over by then."