Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool will not underestimate Villarreal after beating Benfica to qualify for the semi-finals of the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Liverpool made it through to face Villarreal in the last four of the competition thanks to a 6-4 win over Benfica on aggregate. Klopp’s side carried a 3-1 lead into the home leg and drew 3-3 at Anfield to safely make it through, despite surrendering a two-goal lead on the night.
Ibrahima Konate headed in a corner to make it 1-0 before Goncalo Ramos equalised with a smart finish. Roberto Firmino then made the result secure with two close-range finishes from left-wing crosses from Diogo Jota and Kostas Tsimikas.
Benfica took advantage of Liverpool’s high defensive line with Roman Yaremchuk rounding Alisson to make it 3-2 before Darwin Nunez burnished his growing reputation with a clinical finish after the offside trap had been sprung again. The two goals were mere consolations for the Portuguese side, with Liverpool through to face Villarreal in the semi-finals after Emery’s side shocked Bayern Munich 2-1 on aggregate.
Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has been impressed by what he’s seen from Villarreal this season and had a warning for Klopp not to underestimate their opponents, who also beat Juventus in the last-16. He said: "Just beware Unai Emery: his record in Europe is phenomenal. Just saying, it’s a fact."
Klopp made seven changes to protect his players during an extremely busy period of fixtures and was delighted with the result. He insisted Liverpool would not go into the Villarreal games underprepared.
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"If I could do an analysis of Villarreal right now that would be very strange," he said. "I saw the results, the game was very impressive. I only picked up pieces, but to beat Juventus and Bayern Munich they deserve to be in the Champions League semi-finals. Unai Emery is the king of the cups, it is unbelievable what he is doing. But give me a bit of time to prepare it properly."
On the result against Benfica, he added: "The day we qualify for the Champions League semi-final and I'm not happy please come and knock me out," he said. "We made seven changes. The situation was the last line had never played together and it was about details, staying 100 per cent concentrated.
"It was not exactly what we wanted but it is absolutely not important because if we played the best game of the season tonight it wouldn't have made it more likely to get to the final. We are through and that's all that matters and I'm really happy.
"The one thing we knew is it will be hard as the last line never played together. You lose the boys like Virgil [van Dijk] and these things are normal. This is not a problem. Benfica kept believing and kept going that's all. It was important we could make changes and still be successful, that's fine."
