It is rare that a Champions League quarter-final is the less important match in a week, but with Liverpool due to play Manchester City in what could well be a showdown to decide who wins the Premier League this season, they would be hoping to make short work of Benfica in order to focus on domestic matters.
Jürgen Klopp made six changes to the side that beat Watford at the weekend, with Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson, Thiago Alcântara and Mohamed Salah the only men continuing on. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Nélson Verissimo made just two changes to the team that lost to Braga on Friday, replacing Soualiho Meïté and Roman Yaremchuk with Adel Taarabt and Darwin Nuñez. Benfica lined up in a 4-2-3-1 shape.
Benfica dropped back into a mid-block – not so deep that they completely ceded control to Liverpool as many English sides do, still stepping forward to engage Liverpool in certain situations, but enough to maintain their shape and force Liverpool into playing around them.
Gonçalo Ramos would start alongside Nuñez in a 4-4-2 shape, but would then drop back into midfield, bolstering the centre in a 4-5-1 shape, particularly when Liverpool played wide or got past Benfica’s first line of defence.
As a result, Liverpool faced a familiar problem: breaking down a solid opposition defence. They looked to switch the ball out from side to side with long raking passes, while Naby Keïta and Thiago took it in turns dropping in next to Fabinho while the other pushed forward to join the attack.
Nevertheless it was through a set-piece that Liverpool took an early lead. Ibrahima Konaté’s marker Everton lost his man, so the centre-back was free to head home a corner when Jan Vertonghen missed his header.
Benfica had some success playing out from the back under pressure from Liverpool. Bait Sadio Mané into pressing the goalkeeper and they could get Julian Weigl free in midfield to turn out and play forward, and they were regularly able to find players between the lines, with Taarabt pushing forward to join Ramos and the wingers willing to tuck inside into the centre, enabling them to outnumber Liverpool’s midfielders. It was a case of Liverpool’s shape not quite lining up well against Benfica’s: Liverpool’s wingers would push up to press the centre-backs, which meant it was the full-backs’ duty to step up and press Benfica’s full-backs, which meant Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold often weren’t able to follow the wingers inside.
The downside to this approach was that it required Benfica to try to maintain possession under pressure in dangerous areas and for their players to spread out, leaving gaps between them.
Liverpool doubled their lead taking advantage of this in transition. Benfica tried to play out under pressure and sent a pass forward to their attackers, only for Konaté to intercept the ball. He played it quickly to Alexander-Arnold, who sent a great pass in behind for Luis Diaz making a run through the gap between the full-back and centre-back, and the former Porto man nodded it down for Mané to finish.
To fight back Benfica upped the pace of their attacking play. Whether it was a counter-attack or simply passing out from the back at greater speed, they sought to get men forward quickly to catch out Liverpool while their full-backs and midfielders were high up the pitch. The downside to this was that they often went too quickly for their own good: a hurried touch would see an attacker hand the ball back to a defender, or be left with no passing options because his teammates hadn’t caught up with him.
Benfica managed to pull a goal back through one of these counters. Rafa Silva picked up the loose ball and sprinted in behind Robertson, before crossing to Nuñez to finish, with Konaté missing his chance to cut out the cross.
Mid-way through the second half, Klopp made a triple substitution presumably with Sunday’s game against Manchester City in mind, removing Salah, Thiago and Mané. Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino were like-for-like changes in attack, but Jordan Henderson is a different type of midfielder to Thiago and didn’t really suit the match environment. With Benfica playing at a higher tempo, Liverpool needed someone who could slow the game down and frustrate the opposition, which Thiago with his neat controlled passing is much more suited for. Henderson could match Benfica’s tempo, but his desire to get stuck in and push forward into attack opened up the game further when Liverpool really needed someone to shut it down.
Gradually though, Henderson acclimatised himself to the needs of the game, holding back in midfield and playing simpler short passes to hold onto the ball rather than sending in crosses that improved Liverpool’s chances of scoring but also improved Benfica’s chances of winning back the ball and countering.
Liverpool rounded off their win with a third goal. Nicolas Otamendi followed Firmino into midfield and won back the ball, but then his loose pass fell to Keïta. Weigl had dropped back to plug the gap Otamendi had left in defence, meaning Keïta had space ahead of him to push forward on the ball, then the Guinean slid a through ball in behind at the exact moment Weigl began to turn, catching him square and enabling Diaz to run in behind him, round Odysseas Vlachodimos and finish.
With a good lead to take back to Anfield, Liverpool can focus fully on the weekend’s match without having to worry too much about keeping some in the tank for the second leg on Wednesday.
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