{"id":6950,"date":"2022-04-13T22:06:32","date_gmt":"2022-04-13T22:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=6950"},"modified":"2022-04-13T22:06:32","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T22:06:32","slug":"liverpool-survive-benfica-to-face-villareal-in-champions-league-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=6950","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool Survive Benfica, To Face Villareal In Champions League Semi-final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liverpool booked a Champions League semi-final showdown against Villarreal as the quadruple chasers survived a late collapse in Wednesday\u2019s 3-3 draw against Benfica.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jurgen Klopp\u2019s side already had one foot in the last four after winning 3-1 in the quarter-final first leg in Lisbon.<\/span><\/p>\n

They were on cruise control for long spells in the second leg at Anfield, but had to hold their nerve before advancing 6-4 on aggregate after an uncharacteristic meltdown in the closing stages.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ibrahima Konate put Liverpool ahead before Goncalo Ramos equalised late in the first half.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Roberto Firmino netted twice after the interval, the tie looked all but over.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Roman Yaremchuk and Darwin Nunez struck for Benfica to briefly give the visitors hope of an astonishing escape act, before Liverpool finally restored order.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Reds will face Spanish side Villarreal in the semi-finals as they look to reach their 10th Champions League final and claim a seventh title in the competition.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite Villarreal\u2019s impressive wins over Bayern Munich and Juventus in the last two rounds, Liverpool will be firm favourites to make a third Champions League final in the last five seasons.<\/span><\/p>\n

That would put them a step closer to an incredible clean-sweep of all four major trophies in one campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Significantly, Klopp was able to keep Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Virgil Van Dijk fresh as he started with his stars on the bench.<\/span><\/p>\n

Klopp made seven changes from Sunday\u2019s 2-2 draw with Premier League leaders Manchester City as he opted to keep his stars fresh for Saturday\u2019s FA Cup semi-final against Pep Guardiola\u2019s side at Wembley.<\/span><\/p>\n

Inevitably, Liverpool\u2019s much-changed line-up took a while to get into their stride after a pre-match minute\u2019s silence to mark this Friday\u2019s 33rd anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liverpool booked a Champions League semi-final showdown against Villarreal as the quadruple chasers survived a late collapse in Wednesday\u2019s 3-3 draw against Benfica. Jurgen Klopp\u2019s side already had one foot in the last four after winning 3-1 in the quarter-final first leg in Lisbon. They were on cruise control for long spells in the second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4141,221,828,1965,4142],"class_list":["post-6950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-benfica","tag-champions-league","tag-liverpool","tag-semi-final","tag-villareal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6952,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6950\/revisions\/6952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}