The manager of Liverpool football club, Jurgen Klopp has stressed that he was happy that his team made it to the semi-final stage of the UEFA Champions League despite a 3-3 draw with Benfica.
On Wednesday, April 13, Liverpool almost squandered a 3-1 advantage in front of their home fans at Anfield stadium when Portuguese side Benfica visited the stadium for the second leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final round.
Recall that in the first leg of the round, Liverpool defeated Benfica 3-1 in Portugal and were expected to seal their progress to the semi-final round with an easy victory in the second leg on Wednesday.
Ahead of the tie, coach Jurgen Klopp decided to present a weaker starting lineup against the Portuguese side which almost backfired. Before the tie started looking like it was going to backfire against the hosts, Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate gifted the Premier League side the lead in the 21st minute.
The lead did not last too long before Benfica equalized in the 32nd minute thanks to Ramos. In the second half, Roberto Firmino restored Liverpool’s lead in the 55th minute.
While the Portuguese side were trying to get back into the game, Firmino made it 3-1 in favor of the Premier League side but that did not stop the Portuguese side from trying to overturn the tie.
In the last 15 minutes of the game Benfica silent the Anfield stadium by scoring two goals and putting extreme pressure on the home side. But Liverpool survived the scare and qualified for the Semi-final stage of the Champions League 6-4 on aggregate.
During the post-match press conference, reporters tried to point out how Benfica almost defeated Liverpool at Anfield but Jurgen Klopp refused to see any fault in how his team performed against Benfica.
The German tactician stressed that he made a lot of changes, especially in the defense, and was happy that the 3-3 draw was enough for his team to qualify for the semi-final stage of the competition.
“The day when we qualify for the semi-finals of the Champions League and I’m not happy, come here and knock me out – it would make no sense,” Jurgen Klopp told BT Sport. “We made seven changes for good reason and played a really good first half where I liked a lot of things.
“But 3-1 up, the last line have never played together and it’s about details. It’s difficult to keep 100 percent concentrated, the opposition will celebrate that they got a draw, a result here, but we didn’t have the perfect mindset at that moment.
“Of course, it wasn’t exactly what we wanted to do, but it’s not important. Playing the best game of the season tonight or our whole time together, wouldn’t have made it any more likely to get into the final. We played the game we played, we’re through and that’s all I wanted. I’m happy.
“I was never in doubt about our line-up. We knew it would be hard, the backline have never played together and it was three center-halves in there, you lose the voice without Virgil van Dijk, but the rotation in other positions was never a problem.”
Jurgen Klopp speaks after Liverpool booked their spot in the final four of the Champions League and a clash with Villarreal after seeing the job through with a 3-3 draw with Benfica! 👇 pic.twitter.com/dXjyd2BMhM
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) April 13, 2022
Jurgen Klopp hails Villarreal and Unai Emery
Liverpool will face Villarreal in the semi-final stage of the UEFA Champions League campaign for this season.
Villarreal got this far for the first time in 16 years after knocking out Juventus and then Bayern Munich. The Spanish side will have to knock out Liverpool in the semi-final stage of the competition to book a place in the final of the competition.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool has tasted defeat at the hands of Villarreal in the 2015-2016 season in the Europa League and the Spanish side would dream of doing the same in the Champions League this season.
While reacting to Villarreal’s performance in this season’s UEFA Champions League campaign, coach Jurgen Klopp hailed Unai Emery and called the Spanish side the “king of the cups”.
“I saw the result last night, the game was very impressive – really good defending, last week I only picked up pieces from their match but whoever kicks out Juventus and Bayern Munich from the Champions League deserves to be in the semi-finals”, Klopp said while referring to Villarreal’s 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
“They have an extremely experienced manager, the king of the cups, it’s unbelievable what Unai is doing.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes Villarreal boss Unai Emery is the most successful cup competition manager in world football 🌍 pic.twitter.com/oVYsJEbreo
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) April 14, 2022
