Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp laughed off any holes in his side’s performance against Benfica in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. He criticized the schedule which sees them play nine games in April and made seven changes to the starting line-up against the Portuguese giants. Despite throwing away two leads on the night, a 3-3 scoreline was enough to help Liverpool book their place in the semi-finals against Villareal.
“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,” Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said. “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 has 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,” he added. “I was never in doubt about our line-up. We knew it would be hard, the backline has 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. 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.”
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