Francis Coquelin claims Villarreal can beat Liverpool in another Champions League upset

It will be just like old times when Francis Coquelin comes up against Thiago Alcantara on Tuesday night – the Liverpool midfielder was in the Spain team that Coquelin helped France beat in 2010 to win the under-19 Euros.

'In my age group, the generation of '91, he was probably the best player along with Eden Hazard,' the Villarreal midfielder says. 'They were the standout players of their generation.

'We had a lot of battles with Spain [against France] at the time and it will be another one with him on Wednesday.'

This interview has started in Spanish, but Coquelin soon switches to preferred English and he has not lost a London accent he acquired spending ten years at Arsenal, 'seven minus the loans!' he says.

He won the admiration of Thierry Henry who nicknamed him 'Columbo' after the TV detective because he policed midfield. And of Santi Cazorla for whom he became a midfield bodyguard.

'It's in the footballing culture and the genes with those tricky Spanish midfield players', he says of Cazorla and Thiago. 'Especially in Thiago's case with his father (Brazil World Cup winner Mazinho) and his brother Rafinha, it's a decent family of footballers.'

Coquelin is genuine in his praise of Thiago and of Liverpool. But he feels Villarreal have a certain toughness honed in English football that will help them compete tomorrow night.

Against Bayern Munich eight of their starters had been at English clubs and their midfield quartet on the night had all played in England.

'I think the Premier League is probably the best league in the world and the physical nature of the league helps you,' he says.

'We still have the Spanish mentality in LaLiga but when you reach this stage of European football it's important to have the physicality to go with the technique.

'And we do talk about this Premier League connection of course we do. I still watch a lot of English football.'

That's clear when we talk about the most obscure connection between Villarreal and English football – Dani Parejo's loan at QPR while still a youth player at Real Madrid.

'He was there for about four months I think. I always loved playing at QPR the small stadium, what was it called, Loftus Road? I almost went on loan there when I was at Arsenal.

'The English atmosphere is something special. Every stadium in England – you go to Burnley and the atmosphere at Turf Moor is special. Every stadium has something. And you want to play games like this at places like Anfield.

'Allianz Arena is something, but Anfield is different. I think the atmosphere between the team and the crowd is something you don't really come across often in football.'

It was Arsene Wenger who brought Coquelin to London in 2008 and another Arsenal coach Unai Emery who has now taken his career to another level aged 30.

'They are two men that love football, two great managers,' he says. 'They both focus on details and they see everything. I was so young when I got to Arsenal so Arsene Wenger was like a second father. And I'm still learning here at Villarreal.'

Does he still hear Arsene's voice guiding him? 'Well to be fair Arsene was not someone who was talking a lot,' he says. 'If you wanted to talk to him you had to go and knock his door. But with eye contact alone you knew if he was happy with you or not.'

Should Arsenal have persisted longer with Emery as Wenger's long term replacement?

'Not just Arsenal look at Paris Saint Germain,' Coquelin says. 'They are not doing any better than when he was there. Unfortunately we don't have patience with managers. He deserves huge credit with all the clubs he has been at.'

Emery took plenty of credit when Bayern Munich were dispatched in the quarter-finals having been guilty of a publicly-expressed over-confidence.

'Everyone in our dressing room had seen it in the press and it does give you a little bit of extra bite,' Coquelin says. 'It was a little bit a lack of humility. I can understand to some extent when you are the bigger team. You don't do it on purpose but it's natural to think well we are playing against the easiest team [left in the competition].

'I think they realized in the first leg that it was going to be more difficult because we could have scored three or four and I thought after the first game they would have learned but then in the second game they did exactly the same.'

He still feels that Villarreal cannot be as wasteful as they were in the first game against Bayern.

'Liverpool are stronger than Bayern. They are probably the team that press the best in Europe. It is difficult to know where their weaknesses are. They are strong all over the pitch with full-backs who can play like strikers and two players who fight for Ballon d'Or every year in Salah and Mane.

'And now they have signed Luis Diaz too and he settles in the team like he has been there for five years. It's going to be difficult but we have got confidence because we knocked out Bayern Munich and Juventus. We have the dream in the back of our heads of reaching a Champions League final and we are not going there just to look around Anfield.'