Jurgen Klopp's facet already had one foot in the last 4 after triumphing three-1 inside the area-final first leg in Lisbon. They have been on cruise manipulate for lengthy spells within the 2d leg at Anfield, but needed to keep their nerve earlier than advancing 6-four on aggregate after an uncharacteristic meltdown in the closing stages.
Ibrahima Konate placed Liverpool in advance before Goncalo Ramos equalised past due inside the first 1/2. When Roberto Firmino netted twice after the interval, the tie looked all however over. However, Roman Yaremchuk and Darwin Nunez struck for Benfica to in brief provide the site visitors hope of an dazzling break out act, earlier than Liverpool sooner or later restored order.
The Reds will face Spanish aspect Villarreal within the semi-finals as they look to attain their 10th Champions League very last and declare a 7th name within the competition. Despite Villarreal's marvelous wins over Bayern Munich and Juventus inside the last rounds, Liverpool can be company favourites to make a third Champions League final within the final 5 seasons. That would placed them a step toward an remarkable smooth-sweep of all 4 main trophies in a single campaign.
Significantly, Klopp became able to maintain Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Virgil Van Dijk fresh as he commenced along with his stars at the bench. Klopp made seven modifications from Sunday's 2-2 draw with Premier League leaders Manchester City as he opted to preserve his stars fresh for Saturday's FA Cup semi-final in opposition to Pep Guardiola's side at Wembley.
Inevitably, Liverpool's plenty-changed line-up took a while to get into their stride after a pre-suit minute's silence to mark this Friday's 33rd anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy.
Ironically, it become a player named after Liverpool's rivals Everton who threatened first for Benfica when the winger curled just wide from long variety. But it wasn't long before Liverpool flexed their muscular tissues. Konate had headed the opener within the first leg at Benfica and Liverpool's towering centre-lower back tormented the Portuguese facet along with his aerial prowess once more inside the 21st minute. Kostas Tsimikas whipped an outswinging nook closer to Konate and he climbed above 3 Benfica players to move into the some distance corner from 10 yards.
Benfica snatched their equaliser towards the run of play in the thirty second minute. Diogo Goncalves' skip clipped off James Milner and ran thru to the unmarked Ramos, who smacked a satisfactory finish beyond Alisson from simply within the place.
Any hopes of a beautiful Benfica fightback regarded over when the visitors shot themselves in the foot in farcical style within the 55th minute. Goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos turned into the instigator of Benfica's meltdown as he fumbled what need to were an smooth interception of Naby Keita's over-hit skip. Jan Vertonghen's panicked try to clear the risk wasn't a whole lot higher and Jota crossed back into the six-backyard container, in which Firmino had the simple mission of tapping into the empty net.
Firmino accompanied his first home Champions League intention for 2 years with every other 10 mins later. Tsimikas curled a awesome free-kick to the bypass and Firmino eluded Benfica's sloppy marking to volley home from close-range.
