Gary Lineker has become the latest to laud Luis Diaz after the Liverpool star wrapped up their 3-1 victory over Benfica in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
The Reds ace registered an assist and scored in the 87th minute to give Jurgen Klopp 's side a two-goal cushion heading back to Anfield for the second leg next Wednesday.
The goal was particular sweet for Diaz as it came against his former bitter rivals, having been a Porto player until January when Liverpool forked out £50million to sign him.
Having received plaudits from the get-go after departing Portugal, Lineker was next in line on Tuesday night and tweeted : "Superb goal from Diaz should seal it for LFC. What a signing."
The 25-year-old's strike was only his second goal in eight appearances versus Benfica, who threatened a comeback before Diaz got on the scoresheet by latching onto a through ball and rounding Odysseas Vlachodimos.
After teammates Ibrahima Konate and Sadio Mane gave the Reds 2-0 lead in the first half, striking sensation Darwin Nunez hit back shortly after half-time to offer the hosts a glimmer of hope - but it was ultimately in vain.
It was raucous atmosphere at the Estadio da Luz, with Klopp's players being subject to missiles during the match. Left-back Andy Robertson had lighters thrown at him and quipped to BT Sport : "They weren't best pleased were they! I had quite a few lighters thrown at me, so maybe it'll help them stop smoking and take the positives.
"But, we've seen it a lot, people getting hit and things like that, it was quite close to me but none hit me. I know when it's late in the game and you get frustrated but, you know you shouldn't throw stuff onto the pitch and try to hurt people."
Robertson, too, praised Diaz by adding: "He got a nice reception from the start! Obviously, playing for one of their rivals and it was a good finish from him.
"A really important goal for us like you said, it gives us a two-goal cushion, which can make the difference, and it's important we make that count next week. It's still a big game, we want to be in the semi-finals and there's still a lot of work to do to get there, but hopefully, with our home fans at our stadium, we can get the job done."
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Klopp then joined the Diaz love-in, declaring: "He's a top player. He's a top, top world level player. It's a joy for me to work with Luis every day, and I'm more than happy that we decided to sign him in January." The Liverpool boss added: "Coming here and winning an away game in the Champions League is tough.
"Benfica fought for their lives, we gave them a little bit too much but they deserved the goal as well, even though we could have defended better - they had counter attacks, it is not easy to keep the ball all the time and the more risk you take, they have really good players.
"It was a tough game, what I expected, the crowd was there, we knew 2-0 is nothing, nice but not more. They score the goal and it was much more open than we wanted but the goalie was probably the best player and made a couple of really good saves - we are two goals up, half-time, let's keep going.
"We usually score more [in those situations] but we didn't, mainly because the goalie, credit to him, and that is pretty much the story. We could have scored in the last minute, 4-1 would be nice but we are not in dreamland here. We know much more about our opponent, they won at Ajax, we are aware of the quality and have a nice game in between but then we will be ready again."
