Hundreds of Liverpool fans stuck outside Benfica's stadium have missed kick-off of the Champions League encounter.
Police presence appeared to be halting fans with a large portion of the away section empty inside the Estadio da Luz. One fan account, The Anfield Wrap, tweeted pictures of scores of fans waiting to get inside the 64,000-seater stadium, with the caption: "Two mins to kick-off."
Another user, posted directly from outside the stadium, with the tweet: "This is right now outside stadium. Police preventing Liverpool fans from getting in stadium". Pictures taken ahead of kick-off of the away section inside the stadium showed hundreds of empty seats, indicating there were issues with fans getting inside.
Were you one of the Liverpool fans stuck outside Benfica's stadium? Tell us more by emailing thomas.bristow@reachplc.com
Even with 15 minutes gone a large number of Reds supporters were still stuck outside, meaning they missed Ibrahima Konate's powering header to give the visitors the lead. According to one fan, because there are no turnstiles at the Estadio da Luz the police could only let fans through in groups of as small as a few hundred at a time.
Checks were needed to be done, claimed another held up fan on Twitter, leading to an horrendous delay in entry for the travelling support.
It seems at around 20 minutes in fans finally got into the stadium. And it didn't take them long to find their voice following the opening goal. Konate's header, from an Andy Robertson corner, silenced the home crowd with the Reds' fans in full voice in their section high up in the gods.
Prior to kick-off, Jurgen Klopp discussed the threat of their Portuguese opposition and how they would need to be absolutely spot on for the contest. "I think about being top of our game," said the Reds boss. "That's the plan for all of the games. It doesn't happen that you try to improve here or there, you try to improve in general, and Benfica is obviously a different opponent.
"One of the most successful teams in Portugal, this year maybe not exactly where they want to be in the table but they went far in the Champions League so it's a tough opponent. I know we know a lot of players, obviously, from Premier League or Bundesliga or wherever so you can say it's a proper team and we have to be really good, that's true."
On Liverpool's defence, he added: "It's the mother, if you want, of all the things we do. That's what I'm asking for constantly, that will never stop, because it gives you stability, it gives you [the] opportunity to win games 1-0, which is important, because you cannot always score plenty of goals because of the quality of the other opponents, so that's how it all starts [and] that's how it all ends. It's absolutely the basis for all the things we do."
