<\/p>\n
Liverpool booked a Champions League semi-final showdown against Villarreal as the quadruple chasers survived a late collapse in Wednesday\u2019s 3-3 draw against Benfica.<\/p>\n
Jurgen Klopp\u2019s side already had one foot in the last four after winning 3-1 in the quarter-final first leg in Lisbon.<\/p>\n
They were on cruise control for long spells in the second leg at Anfield, but had to hold their nerve before advancing 6-4 on aggregate after an uncharacteristic meltdown in the closing stages.<\/p>\n
Ibrahima Konate put Liverpool ahead before Goncalo Ramos equalised late in the first half.<\/p>\n
When Roberto Firmino netted twice after the interval, the tie looked all but over.<\/p>\n
However, Roman Yaremchuk and Darwin Nunez struck for Benfica to briefly give the visitors hope of an astonishing escape act, before Liverpool finally restored order.<\/p>\n
The Reds will face Spanish side Villarreal in the semi-finals as they look to reach their 10th Champions League final and claim a seventh title in the competition.<\/p>\n
Despite Villarreal\u2019s impressive wins over Bayern Munich and Juventus in the last two rounds, Liverpool will be firm favourites to make a third Champions League final in the last five seasons.<\/p>\n
That would put them a step closer to an incredible clean-sweep of all four major trophies in one campaign.<\/p>\n
Significantly, Klopp was able to keep Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Virgil Van Dijk fresh as he started with his stars on the bench.<\/p>\n
Klopp made seven changes from Sunday\u2019s 2-2 draw with Premier League leaders Manchester City as he opted to keep his stars fresh for Saturday\u2019s FA Cup semi-final against Pep Guardiola\u2019s side at Wembley.<\/p>\n
Inevitably, Liverpool\u2019s much-changed line-up took a while to get into their stride after a pre-match minute\u2019s silence to mark this Friday\u2019s 33rd anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Firmino stars \u2013
Ironically, it was a player named after Liverpool\u2019s rivals Everton who threatened first for Benfica when the winger curled just wide from long range.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t long before Liverpool flexed their muscles.<\/p>\n
Konate had headed the opener in the first leg at Benfica and Liverpool\u2019s towering centre-back tormented the Portuguese side with his aerial prowess again in the 21st minute.<\/p>\n
Kostas Tsimikas whipped an outswinging corner towards Konate and he climbed above three Benfica players to head into the far corner from 10 yards.<\/p>\n
Benfica snatched their equaliser against the run of play in the 32nd minute.<\/p>\n
Diogo Goncalves\u2019 pass clipped off James Milner and ran through to the unmarked Ramos, who smacked a fine finish past Alisson from just inside the area.<\/p>\n
Any hopes of a stunning Benfica fightback seemed over when the visitors shot themselves in the foot in farcical fashion in the 55th minute.<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos was the instigator of Benfica\u2019s meltdown as he fumbled what should have been an easy interception of Naby Keita\u2019s over-hit pass.<\/p>\n
Jan Vertonghen\u2019s panicked attempt to clear the danger wasn\u2019t much better and Jota crossed back into the six-yard box, where Firmino had the simple task of tapping into the empty net.<\/p>\n
Firmino followed his first home Champions League goal for two years with another 10 minutes later.<\/p>\n
Tsimikas curled a superb free-kick to the pass and Firmino eluded Benfica\u2019s sloppy marking to volley home from close-range.<\/p>\n
With Klopp\u2019s men taking their foot off the gas, Yaremchuk struck in the 73rd minute, rounding Alisson to slot home after beating Liverpool\u2019s offside trap.<\/p>\n
There was a sharp intake of breath around Anfield when Nunez scored with a predatory finish in the 82nd minute.<\/p>\n
Moments later, Nunez\u2019s low strike tested Alisson, but Liverpool held on to keep the quadruple dream alive<\/p>\n
\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool booked a Champions League semi-final showdown against Villarreal as the quadruple chasers survived a late collapse in Wednesday\u2019s 3-3 draw against Benfica. Jurgen Klopp\u2019s side already had one foot in the last four after winning 3-1 in the quarter-final first leg in Lisbon. They were on cruise control for long spells in the second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1055962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[6216,774,1497,674,1958,4029,5156,7173],"class_list":["post-1055961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-benfica","tag-champions","tag-face","tag-league","tag-liverpool","tag-semifinal","tag-survive","tag-villareal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055961","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=1055961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1055961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1055961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1055961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}