Ahead of this Champions League match, Liverpool were involved in a high-octane encounter against Premier League leaders Manchester City at the weekend.
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Liverpool will have the opportunity to secure a semifinal berth in the Champions League when they take on Benfica. In the first leg last week in Portugal, the Reds emerged as a comfortable 3-1 winner. That result means Liverpool will be heading into the second leg clash at Anfield as the favourites. Ahead of this Champions League match, Liverpool were involved in a high-octane encounter against Premier League leaders Manchester City at the weekend. Jurgen Klopp’s side twice came from behind to secure a point at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
The match was played at a breakneck tempo for most of the 90 minutes. The physically demanding encounter on Sunday could have left some impact on certain players. However, Klopp remains confident of having a full squad to choose from for Wednesday’s meeting with Benfica. “Nobody sent me a message so far and told me [there are injury issues],” Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com on Tuesday. “Yesterday all was fine – tired yes, but nobody injured. So yeah, we should be fine.”
If Liverpool do their job against Benfica, they will set up a last-four contest with one of Bayern Munich or Villarreal. For now, Klopp is not taking the match against the Portuguese side for granted despite enjoying a healthy lead. “We have to be on top of the game. We were good at Benfica, I liked the game. In a lot of parts I liked it a lot, even when I did the analysis it looked better than it did live, to be honest. The main target is, again our headline, being the one team nobody wants to play against – and that Benfica don’t want to play against,” Klopp said in his pre-match press conference.
READ MORE – Liverpool vs Benfica: Champions League Schedule, Fixture, Probable line-up and Live Streaming details
“Like, really aggressive in a football sense against the ball, really defending them, knowing more about what they play. Obviously, they tried to isolate in moments Darwin a little bit [against] Ibou [Konate], one-on-one situations, going for the second ball and this kind of thing. But they play football and if you don’t defend [Julian] Weigl then you have a problem as well because he connects the pieces a little bit. So, there is a lot to do. [They have] speed with Rafa [Silva] and there are so many things we knew before, but then you see it on the pitch and it is really impressive. Again, how a half-time should be, now you know more about the opponent, so adjust and go again.”
In the reverse leg, the match was set to end 2-1 in Liverpool’s favour but a late goal by Luis Diaz gave the Reds a two-goal cushion ahead of the second leg. Asked whether Diaz’s late strike in the first leg has had an influence on the tie, Klopp said, “Yes, it’s better. Again, you can only describe it like this – if we play and it is 3-1 at half-time, that’s as tricky as 2-0. Yes, it’s a good basis, [but] if they score one – and we felt it against Inter – it is a game-changer. We felt it there when we were in control of the game until Benfica scored and then all of a sudden it looked slightly different.”
“We altogether have to make sure tomorrow night they really feel this is a place you don’t want to go. You want to go for whatever, sentiment or something like that, but you don’t want to play them there – that’s what we have to be. Really on our toes, really angry in a good way, they want to kick us out of the competition, so we have to be ready for these kind of things. I really hope we are.”
