The La Liga fell to a 2-0 defeat at Anfield, and are perhaps fortunate to only be taking a two-goal deficit into the second leg after they were utterly dominated by Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Jordan Henderson’s cross took a flick off Pervis Estupinan and found the far corner for the opening goal, before Sadio Mane doubled the lead less than two minutes later to give Liverpool a lead they more than deserved.
Emery and Villarreal have done superbly to reach the last four for just the second time in the club’s history, but they know they will need to significantly improve if they are to score the two goals they will at a minimum require next week.
“We can’t dispute the result because they deserve it,” Emery said.
“The first half was defensively good but we didn’t achieve in attack. They had two or three chances to score.
“The second half was the same and they pushed and deserved to score. 2-0 is a good difference for them, for us not a good result but we will try to dream and do something different in our home.
“The match next week will be very different than tonight. It is very important in our home to change something, maybe tactically. They are going to suffer more than tonight.”