Three years after a secret mission from Benfica 'B' helped Liverpool beat Tottenham in the Champions League Final, Jurgen’s Klopp’s side should expect no such favours in Lisbon tonight.
In 2019, Liverpool asked Benfica to travel to Marbella, where they were holding a training camp before they played Spurs at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid.
Julian Ward, who is to step up and replace Liverpool sporting director Michael Edwards in the summer, asked Benfica technical director Pedro Marques if the Portuguese side could replicate Tottenham’s style in a practice match.
Liverpool won the match 2-0 before beating Spurs by the same scoreline seven days later.
The prospect of the quadruple still looms large on the horizon for Liverpool and the perception is that Benfica, who are third in the Primeira Liga, 12 points behind the Porto side that Liverpool beat twice in the group stage, will not seriously challenge them over the course of the next week.
But Klopp has warned: "They kicked out Ajax.
“We all know one failure, one little misstep, and at least one competition can be gone. That's no problem for us, we're just ready for the next challenge. We enjoy it. It is the situation we would have dreamed of."
Klopp has called on his side to "run like mad" and is expecting "an interesting challenge" from Benfica.
"We need desire, mentality and excitement,” he said. “You can't buy that. We have played games before when we were 1-0 up and we were still running like mad. I want my players thinking in the right way.”
