Legendary Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has hailed the "unbelievable" unsung heroes at Liverpool after the Reds put one foot in the Champions League semi-finals.
Jurgen Klopp's side secured a 3-1 win in the first leg of their quarter-final tie against Benfica. It was a mixed performance from the Premier League title challengers though, who remain in the frame to win a historic quadruple of trophies.
Goals from Ibrahima Konate, Sadio Mane and Luis Diaz were enough for Klopp's men to claim a commanding lead ahead of next week's second leg. Konate headed the Reds in front from a corner 17 minutes in before Mane tapped in from Diaz's header.
But Benfica fought back after the break and deservedly cut Liverpool's lead in half within four minutes. Darwin Nunez capitalised on a mistake by Konate to take a touch and fire beyond Alisson.
Arguably, the hosts deserved more than just a solitary goal for their second-half efforts. But it was Liverpool who struck next, when Diaz raced onto a through ball, rounded the keeper and fired in his side's third goal of the night.
Diaz's strike meant that two of Liverpool's three goals were scored by players who had been bought within this season's transfer windows. The Colombian was bought from Porto in January, while Konate arrived from RB Leipzig last summer.
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Mane was also brought in from an outside club, rather than being a product of Liverpool's academy. And that successful recruitment was hailed by Wenger, who praised the efforts of the Reds' scouting department, led by sporting director Michael Edwards.
"I would give 10 out of 10 to the scouts. Nothing was wrong there, from [Mohamed] Salah and Mane to [Virgl] Van Dijk. Now Diaz - Diaz looks special. Unbelievable what they’ve done," he told beIN Sports.
"The only guy who didn’t integrate as well as we expected from the start on was Thiago, a little bit [Naby] Keita. You see there's huge potential there, but it took them some time to adjust to the Premier League pace.
"But still they are great players and they’ve done extremely well, Liverpool on that front. They have done fantastically well. I have to congratulate people sometimes who were behind me.
"We know all that because we are a long time in the game, but when you have a good team, most of the time it's by the quality of the work that is done behind the scenes and the quality of the players who have been bought linked with the quality of the scout team."
Edwards will step down from his role as sporting director at Anfield at the end of the season. His current deputy Julian Ward will step up to take Edwards' place, leading the recruitment strategy for the Reds.
Ward is likely to continue on with the work that has been hailed by Wenger. It is a strategy that has seen Liverpool win the Premier League and Champions League in the last three years and put them on course to lift four trophies this season.
