Liverpool’s musical past and Villarreal’s footballing identity meet again at Anfield on Tuesday, when the Spanish side arrive in the city that gave their yellow nickname its unlikely origin. The “Yellow Submarine” face Liverpool in the third round of the Champions League at 16:00 Brasília time, carrying a story that has connected the club to the Beatles for six decades.
Villarreal sit 14th in the competition’s table after opening their campaign with one win and one defeat. Yet the journey to Merseyside has meaning beyond their position in the new league phase: the club’s enduring image was born from “Yellow Submarine”, the Beatles song released in 1966.
During the 1967/68 season, when Villarreal were pursuing promotion to Spain’s third tier, a group of young supporters began playing the record on a portable turntable in the stands. They changed the refrain to celebrate their team’s colours: “Villarreal is yellow, it is yellow.” The chant endured, and so did the nickname, becoming one of the most recognisable in European football.
For all that history, Villarreal did not reach the Beatles’ home city for an official match until 5 May 2016. That first English meeting with Liverpool came in the Europa League semi-finals. On landing at John Lennon Airport, the Spanish delegation posed beside the bronze Yellow Submarine sculpture in the terminal, while the club’s directors later presented Liverpool with a commemorative model submarine at Anfield.
The clubs met again in the 2021/22 Champions League semi-finals. Villarreal supporters marked the return leg at the Estadio de la Cerámica with a large yellow-submarine mosaic, turning their stadium into a vivid tribute to the symbol that had travelled from a Liverpool song to Spain’s Mediterranean coast.
Ten years on from that first Anfield encounter, Villarreal have arranged a gathering point for travelling fans at Concert Square, in the centre of Liverpool. Before the European night begins, the Yellow Submarine’s passengers will assemble in a city that has always, in a small but unmistakable way, been part of their club’s story.
