(Football news) Liverpool progressed to the semi-finals of the Champions League after a 6-4 aggregate win over Benfica over the two legs. It was a high-scoring 3-3 draw at Anfield in the 2nd leg but the result wasn’t enough for the Portuguese side to progress into the next round. The Reds will now face Villarreal in the semi-finals on 27th April and could face either Manchester City or Real Madrid in the finals if they go through.
A goal by Ibrahima Konate and a brace by Roberto Firmino sealed a draw for Liverpool while Goncalo Ramos managed to score for Benfica in the first half. Roman Yaremchuk and Darwin Nunez also scored goals for the visitors but the result wasn’t good enough, especially considering that the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andrew Robertson and Mohamed Salah were rested.
Liverpool have an impressive record of winning the last 35 of their matches on aggregate when they have led in the first leg. They opened their scoring from a set piece when Kostas Tsimikas whipped in a corner from the left side and Konate headed the ball into the bottom corner, outfoxing three Benfica defenders. However, the home side’s offside trap was penetrated in the 32nd minute when a deflected block by James Milner sent Goncalo Ramos through on goal and he subsequently finished in the far corner.
Liverpool extinguished any hopes Benfica may have had about getting back into the game by scoring their second goal as Benfica keeper Odysseas Vlachodimos allowed the ball to slip outside his grasp and a poor clearance by Jan Vertonghen allowed Diogo Jota to provide the assist for Firmino to score. The Brazilian grabbed his second goal 10 minutes later with a classy finish from Tsimikas’ delivery. Benfica once again managed to penetrate through Liverpool’s offside trap as Yaremchuk scored in the 73rd minute. Nunez scored the equaliser in the 81st minute after VAR overturned a wrongly given offside decision but it simply wasn’t enough for the visitors to salvage the match.
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