Liverpool’s fabulous fans make Jurgen Klopp's bright young things an irrepressible force in Europe

It was a glorious, raucous and inimitable evening that reminded you why nobody quite does European football like Liverpool.

The intensity began on the fields of Anfield Road a couple of hours before the team had washed up at the stadium for their Europa League semi-final second leg with Spanish side Villarreal, officially Spain's fourth best, who arrived full of hope and holding a 1-0 lead, but ended a torrid night resembling lost tourists.

With a Yellow Submarine in the city, the Liga side's slightly eccentric nickname, it was perhaps apt that Jurgen Klopp, the charismatic modern day modfather of rock and roll football, and his boys were given the sort of welcome reserved for the Fab Four.

And it does not get much more fabulous than the swashbuckling Roberto Firmino, Daniel Sturridge, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana, an attacking quartet whose vigour, vim and gusto mimicked the fans in leading the unravelling of Villarreal with a clubbing 3-0 win that ensured Liverpool will finish their season contesting another major continental final, the 12th in their history. The possibility of winning the Europa League for a fourth time to go with their five European Cups is suddenly within touching distance.

If Liverpool are football royalty in Europe, as one enormous flag suggested, their rampaging manager is king of the Klopp.

The action seemed to invoke the spirit of yesteryear, of Liverpool's managerial giants likes Shankly, Paisley, Fagan and Benitez, prior to kick-off with fans greeting the arrival of the team bus with as much relish as Real Madrid’s followers had managed the night before in the Champions League.

For Villarreal – a club known as The Yellow Submarine simply because it is not as fashionable as names such as Real Madrid, Barcelona or Liverpool – all this animation, raw emotion and redness seemed to play havoc with their senses and they began taking on water in the opening 10 minutes.

The Spaniards are a side who have conceded only 31 goals this season, a record bettered only by Atlético Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, to qualify for the Champions League. Yet they had barely surfaced before they were submerged deep in their own half when Liverpool struck the opening goal as havoc in the visiting area ended with Bruno Soriano knocking the ball into his own net on eight minutes.

They survived to half-time in the match trailing 1-0, but were simply swept away by a gathering red storm in the second half with Daniel Sturridge converting with a lovely finish on 63 minutes and Adam Lallana prodding into the net on 81 against a side then reduced to 10 men after the sub was well holed by another piece of Firmino magic. Lallana's self-confidence bodes well for England at Euro 2016 next month. How Firmino has not made Brazil's squad for the Copa America is quite astounding.

Villarreal were a besieged Liga lot. A team who pride themselves on being watertight simply could not cope with the movement, pace, pressing and intensity of the home side, and the raw emotion sweeping down from the stands.

If Madrid is the home city of Spain’s richest football club, Liverpool remains the heart and soul of football. It is a spiritual place and a hotbed of the world game that is probably best replicated in cities like Glasgow, Lisbon and Buenos Aires, but in its own right, Liverpool is simply unique. These fans deserve the very best because without them football is just another sport.

If Manchester City want to see how it is supposed to be done in Europe, they could do worse than study Liverpool’s valiant, never-say-die and high-octane style in simply taking the breath away, outthinking and outworking teams such as Manchester United, Borussia Dortmund and Villarreal on their way to the club's 200th continental win.

They are in the final on their own merit, and they know they will be catapulted straight into next season’s Champions League if they can replicate this level of form against Sevilla, a team bidding for a third straight Europa League triumph, at the intimate 38,000-capacity St Jacob-Park a week on Wednesday.

Those who suggest the old UEFA Cup has seen better days should have told a Liverpool support whose history is defined by such evenings. And they should know better than to expect anything else under Klopp, a manager who demands his players respond to his orders with the same amount of gusto and passion that he projects like a whirling dervish on the touchline. Like his players, Klopp rarely stands still.

These fans should be allowed access to their club for £20 tops. With the capacity of Anfield being brought up to 60,000, they do not deserve to be fleeced. Not when they bring such momentum to a football club, as much of a support network as the structure of the new towering main stand that has been built to house more of them.

Gone, but never forgotten. The emotional message was clear from three sides of the ground - "96 - The Greatest Football Family” in support of the fans who were unlawfully killed in 1989. This was the first match since the Hillsborough verdict. After all that has gone on in recent weeks with all the painful implications the fallout from that tragedy continues to bring to the grief-stricken families some 27 years on, it is fitting that Liverpool’s players should bring some small sense of a distraction by returning to a major European final.

Winning the Europa League in his first season would be beyond Klopp’s wildest dreams, but suddenly it all feels inevitable because when Liverpool appointed their new manager last October, they dared to dream that this would be the return under the teutonic goodness of their daring German coach. They just never knew putting it all on red would start paying out so soon.

If this is what Klopp can do with players that he inherited from Brendan Rodgers, the rejuvenated Dejan Lovren, Emre Can, James Milner and Kolo Toure look like men reborn under him, the possibilities are endless when he can add a few figures of his own this summer.

Klopp enjoys rock and roll football. In the club’s 12th man, he has a support act like no other. Klopp wants 100,000 Liverpool fans in Basel for the final. Yet Liverpool will only be given 10,000 tickets by UEFA for the final, a form of football gold dust that suddenly mimics The Beatles playing the Cavern Club.

Judging by the vibe enveloping the German, a veritable red army looks destined to descend upon the Rhine. Judging by the way Klopp's bright young things can sweep teams aside, Liverpool are favourites to end their season on a spine-tingling high.