Luis Diaz came back to haunt Benfica as he scored a goal and an assist to produce one of the comfortable football scores of the weekend in the UEFA Champions League. He moved from Benfica’s archrivals Porto in the January transfer window. Ibrahima Konate opened the scoring in the 17th minute before Sadio Mane doubled their advantage in the 34th minute. Darwin Nunez grabbed a goal back in the 49th minute before Diaz sealed the win in the 87th minute.
Player ratings
Benfica: Vlachodimos (7), Gilberto (6), Otamendi (7), Vertonghen (6), Grimaldo (6), Weigl (6), Taarabt (6), Rafa (7), G.Ramos (6), Everton (6), Darwin (7).
Subs used: Meite (6), Yaremchuk (n/a), Joao Mario (n/a).
Liverpool: Alisson (7), Alexander-Arnold (7), Konate (6), Van Dijk (7), Robertson (7), Fabinho (7), Thiago (6), Keita (6), Salah (6), Mane (6), Diaz (8).
Subs used: Jota (6), Firmino (6), Henderson (6), Gomez (n/a), Milner (n/a).
Man of the match: Luis Diaz.
Managers Reaction
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp: “We came here for a result. I didn’t expect the game of being any easier. It’s a big compliment to Benfica, they fought for their lives, especially after we opened the door a little bit for them. It was clear when they scored that the crowd will be back and the atmosphere was really good and good football teams tend to use that, but we calmed them down immediately a little bit with the three changes… They [the players who came off] were all having tough periods and that’s why it was good that we could have fresh legs.”
“The game was slightly more open than I would wish, but we scored the third one. Everyone can agree we could’ve scored more goals, maybe should have… The best player for Benfica was probably the goalie and it says a lot. It’s half-time, we are two goals up. We were two goals up at half-time today and we knew it wasn’t over, and it’s effectively the same information we have now.”
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