{"id":1046756,"date":"2022-04-06T10:02:37","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T10:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/04\/06\/ucl-liverpool-beat-benfica-to-take-firm-command\/"},"modified":"2022-04-06T10:02:37","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T10:02:37","slug":"ucl-liverpool-beat-benfica-to-take-firm-command","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/04\/06\/ucl-liverpool-beat-benfica-to-take-firm-command\/","title":{"rendered":"UCL: Liverpool beat Benfica to take firm command"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"463\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/sl-benfica-v-liverpool-fc-quarter-final-leg-one-uefa-champions-league-1649187129-910x606-1-696x463.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"sl-benfica-v-liverpool-fc-quarter-final-leg-one-uefa-champions-league-1649187129-910x606\"\/><\/div>\n<p>Sadio Mane and Luis Diaz were on target as Liverpool win 3-1 at Benfica to take a firm grip of their Champions League quarter-final tie.<\/p>\n<p>The Merseysiders are heading into a crucial period in their quest for an unprecedented quadruple and will now be confident of reaching the last four of Europe\u2019s elite competition after a dominant display secured a first-leg advantage.<\/p>\n<p>Jurgen Klopp\u2019s side deservedly took the lead on 17 minutes when Ibrahima Konate headed home his first goal for the club from Andy Robertson\u2019s corner.<\/p>\n<p>Mohamed Salah and Naby Keita had chances to add to the tally before Mane polished off a sublime, incisive move involving Trent Alexander Arnold and Diaz on 34 minutes.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/22191989129,1002554\/MGL\/mgl_ado_atunwa_300x250 --><\/p>\n<p>Liverpool could easily have been out of sight by the interval but were made to pay for failing to make more of their openings when Darwin Nunez punished a Konate error with a clinical finish on 49 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>The hosts were much improved throughout the second half with Nunez offering their greatest hope of rescuing a draw.<\/p>\n<p>The visitors failed to find their best form in the latter stages but added a third through Diaz three minutes from time to ensure they are in control heading into the second leg at Anfield on April 13 courtesy of equalling a club record of five successive away victories in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Liverpool will now switch focus to Sunday\u2019s huge top of the table Premier League clash at Manchester City. Benfica host relegation-threatened Belenenses in the Primeira Liga on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>            <!--  [embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=videoseries[\/embed]<!--\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>--><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"gRIdo2Xo4ag\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"School Placement: Do not pay money for placement, Education Ministry tells parents (31-3-22)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gRIdo2Xo4ag?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sadio Mane and Luis Diaz were on target as Liverpool win 3-1 at Benfica to take a firm grip of their Champions League quarter-final tie. The Merseysiders are heading into a crucial period in their quest for an unprecedented quadruple and will now be confident of reaching the last four of Europe\u2019s elite competition after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1046756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[193,6216,7124,3360,1958,5121],"class_list":["post-1046756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-beat","tag-benfica","tag-command","tag-firm","tag-liverpool","tag-ucl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1046756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1046756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1046756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1046756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}