Sadio Mane made sure he took a moment to celebrate with Luis Diaz as his blistering start to life at Liverpool continued.
The former Porto star was public enemy No.1 at the Estadio da Luz but he put on another impressive display, scoring a vital third as the Reds ran out 3-1 winners in their Champions League quarter-final first leg against Benfica.
Ibrahima Konate had put the visitors in front in the first half, before Sadio Mane doubled their lead with his 15th in all competitions this term. But Liverpool were guilty of missing the chance to kill the tie off completely, spurning a host of gilt-edged opportunities, before Darwin Nunez got Benfica back into the tie with a goal shortly after the break.
It looked as if Liverpool would have to settle for a one-goal lead to take back to Anfield, but Diaz popped up in the closing minutes to grab his third for his new club and put them in a commanding position. And shortly after the full-time whistle, with Diaz completing a post-match interview, Mane burst into shot to give his colleague a hug of appreciation.
"Like I always say, winning is more important. I am happy to score the goal but more happy that the team scored three goals and we are ready for the next game,” Mane told BT Sport in his own media commitments.
As he has done in many of Liverpool’s recent encounters, Klopp opted to shuffle his options in forward areas, with Diaz and Mane recalled at the expense of Roberto Firmino, both of whom started the win over Watford on Saturday. Asked if he anticipated more changes for the title showdown with Manchester City on Sunday, Mane simply pointed out any changes the manager will make, will be for the good of the entire squad.
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"You’ll have to ask the boss! We are Liverpool, we have a deep squad. Sometimes we make changes to benefit the whole team,” and on the start to a pivotal week, he added: "Yeah, but it’s a great start. We can’t expect any better than that. Now we prepare for the next game."
Klopp admitted that his side should have been more clinical and grabbed more goals, but accepted that going to Benfica and returning to Merseyside with a handy advantage should not be sniffed at.
"In the end, we should’ve score more in the first half, we could’ve scored more in the second half, the goalie was probably their best player,” he explained. He made a couple of really good saves. We won it, two goals up, half-time, not more not less, let’s keep going.
“We could’ve scored more of course. With the situations we had, we usually score more, but we didn’t. I think mainly because of their goalie, credit to him, and that’s pretty much the story."
Klopp continued: "Scoring three, we could’ve scored in the last minute and a fourth one would’ve been nice, but it’s a not a dreamland here, it’s about half-time, we have a better result, much better than before and we know more about our opponent.
“They will go for it again, they won at Ajax and grinded out all the results in the group stage, so we are aware of the quality and now we have a nice game in between, but we will be ready.”
