Thiago Alcantara talked up the "amazing ambience" of Liverpool's squad after they beat Villarreal 2-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final.
An own goal from Pervis Estupinan from Jordan Henderson's cross was added to by Sadio Mane's 20th of the season to put the Reds firmly in control of their destiny ahead of the second leg in Spain next week.
It was a night when an in-form Thiago once again shone in midfield. The former Barcelona man is arguably in his best form in a Liverpool shirt having the club joined from Bayern Munich in September 2020.
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Thiago said the squad he is a part of has been able to grow together organically over the last few years and spoke about his delight with how this season is shaping up for Jurgen Klopp's quadruple-hunting outfit.
"For sure, this is a team that for a lot of years has been playing together, with new players coming in over the last year to year-and-a-half," Thiago said. "We have this mixture of young players and experienced players and we have created this amazing ambience.
"I think I enjoyed every period of my career, my time at Barcelona and Bayern but for sure I am enjoying my time here. We have been ourselves, we have to recognise that we are playing a semi-final of the Champions League against a tough team like Villarreal, but at the end to be ourselves that is the key.
"I really enjoyed the team performance, for me it is the best thing. At the end, we want to put the level as high as possible and we delivered today."
On the second leg at El Madrigal next Tuesday, Thiago added: "It will be hard there. I know the stadium because I played there at Barcelona but we have to think about the game at the weekend. We don’t have time to think about the game there [yet].
"We have to be prepared for all kinds of tactics the other team can make. We have players to shoot in any game we want to play so we are comfortable in any way.
"It is not just about patience, we are trying to figure out where the spaces are and the opportunities and in the second half it came. We created the chances we wanted to and at the end we are fine with that."]
