Jurgen Klopp took responsibility for Liverpool conceding three goals against Benfica as the Reds were held to a 3-3 draw, but still managed to progress to the Champions League semi-finals. Goals from Ibrahima Konate and a Roberto Firmino brace had seen them lead 3-1 with 25 minutes to go, only for the Portuguese outfit to earn a draw on the night thanks to goals from Roman Yaremchuk and Darwin Nunez.
With the tie coming in the middle of a Man City double-header, Klopp made seven changes to the side that drew 2-2 at the Etihad on Sunday, with Joel Matip the only member of the Liverpool back four to retain his place. And while the German was pleased to reach the semi-finals, he was surprised by Benfica’s comeback and admitted the number of changes he made affected his side.
“Yeah it’s great, absolutely great (to reach the semi-finals),” he told reporters. “Never happen that I take something like this for granted. I’m really, really happy.
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“I know we will talk about the game, the things that happened, the goals we conceded and all these things but on the day when I’m not over the moon about qualifying for the Champions League semi-finals then something’s really wrong and maybe it would be the right time to quit.
“(Benfica were) Great, really strong, really good but it was about us in this moment as well. It was difficult. I made seven changes, the last line never played together like this.
“I decided that yesterday, we had 15-20 minutes to try and put it right. The majority of times they did really well and I liked it, I liked it a lot. I liked the football. The only problem was when we lost the ball, our protection was obviously not perfect. We missed the boys of the last line.
“When you defend in Champions League quarter-finals, it is about details. I didn’t see the offside situations back but it’s part of defending to put the opponent offside. Tonight it didn’t work out too well but that is my fault because I made seven changes.
“The next problem we had is we were 3-1 up, on aggregate 6-2. It’s an incredible busy period. Some of the boys didn’t play for a while 90 minutes.
“We are human beings, we are like this. We think, ‘Okay, job done!’ And Benfica was still on fire and I respect that a lot. They scored really good goals but it should not be that easy against us. It should not be as easy as it was tonight.
“Benfica deserved the three goals, that’s how it is. Of course we could have scored more, that’s clear. But I’m really happy about it. I know about challenges in football games which you face constantly and tonight it was after 3-1.
"Everyone, me included thought, that’s it. Benfica thought let’s give it a try and I couldn’t respect that more.”
