Jurgen Klopp has made history by leading Liverpool to eight consecutive away victories, marking their greatest run of results on the road since they were established in 1892.
The Reds defeated Benfica 3-1 at the Estadio da Luz on Tuesday night to take a firm grip on their Champions League quarter-final ahead of next Wednesday's second leg. They have also won their last four Premier League away games, their Champions League last-16 first leg at Inter Milan, their FA Cup fourth-round clash at Nottingham Forest and their Carabao Cup semi-final second leg at Arsenal.
Liverpool's winning run away from Anfield stretches back over three months to their 2-2 draw at Chelsea in the top flight at the start of January. Remarkably, they have scored 16 goals while conceding just twice in that time.
It is the kind of form which has given rise to talk of a quadruple triumph this season, with 14 more victories separating the Merseysiders from the unprecedented achievement. By winning at Benfica, Liverpool also matched their best away run of five successive victories in Champions League and European Cup competition, which they set under former manager Joe Fagan in 1984.
The Reds' latest feats come after they became the first English team to win all six of their Champions League group-stage fixtures. Liverpool won home and away at AC Milan, Porto and Atletico Madrid by a combined scoreline of 17-6 to reaffirm their credentials for a seventh European crown and a second under Klopp, who took over in October 2015.
Against Benfica, the Reds were by no means at their best despite surging to a commanding first-half lead through Ibrahima Konate's header and Sadio Mane's tap-in from Luis Diaz's knock-down. Darwin Nunez halved the deficit shortly after the interval by pouncing on Konate's error and the Portuguese club looked the more likely to score for swathes of the second half.
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However, Diaz struck in the closing minutes after a fine through-ball from Naby Keita to restore the two-goal cushion Liverpool will take into next week's encounter on Merseyside. As well as Nunez's opportunistic strike, there were some other concerns for the visitors and Mohamed Salah lacked his usual potent threat in front of goal.
Klopp was forced to defend the club's top goalscorer in his post-match press conference, saying: "Every player in that situation wants to score and it's clear Mo wants to score as well. It's a tough period, the boys came back from Africa, that's really not easy. Massive pressure. They need some time to settle, everything will be fine."
