Firmino sees double and qualifies Liverpool, Nunez impresses Europe and passive defenses… find the Tops and Flops of the Reds’ qualification for the semi-finals.
TOPS
Firmino sinks Benfica’s last hopes
The Brazilian striker from Liverpool took advantage of the turnover put in place by Jürgen Klopp to highlight himself. Holder as number 9, Roberto Firmino scored twice on Wednesday evening. He allowed Liverpool to really take cover by taking a missed shot from Jota (55th) to bring the score to 2-1. Then he received a superb free kick from Tsimikas to allow the Reds to lead 3-1 (65th).
SEE ALSO – Roberto Firmino’s first day at Liverpool
Impressive Nunez
The Uruguayan striker will certainly receive a lot of phone calls in the coming weeks. He weighed heavily on the Reds’ defense and scored a goal at the very end of the match to allow Benfica to draw at Anfield and go out with honors (82nd). He could have scored more than that and was denied two goals for offside (23rd, 94th). Not stingy with effort, the Benfica striker has a real sense of goal and will have shown himself to all of Europe. He also ended in tears thinking perhaps of his last European match under the colors of the Lisbon club.
Konate does it again
The central defender of Liverpool is a real poison on set pieces. Tall and powerful, the Frenchman opened the scoring for Liverpool on the game’s first corner in the 21st minute. He launched this beautiful Champions League evening a week after having already opened the scoring at Benfica a week earlier… it was already from a corner. The two goals are identical and the former RB Leipzig player weighed in on this double confrontation.
Read alsoChampions League: Ibrahima Konaté, the master of the air against Benfica (video)
FLOPS
Gonçalves too shy
The Portuguese midfielder was not good tonight. Too discreet, he did not bring many solutions to his team where we mainly saw Nunez, Everton or Taarabt. The 25-year-old left midfielder seemed too fair and was replaced by Yaremchuk at half-time by his coach.
James Milner too discreet
The Reds midfielder did not do well in this game on Wednesday night. Without being missed, he was not successful and was replaced by Fabinho in the 57th minute. He takes a free kick very badly into the wall in the first half which gives Everton a goal opportunity to open the scoring but the Brazilian’s shot misses Alisson’s post. The English midfielder against a ball at the entrance to the area which offers the opener to Ramos (32nd).
The defenses pass by
The defenses of both teams suffered on Wednesday evening. That of Benfica was undermined and was not successful. Vertonghen offers the 2-1 goal to Liverpool by completely missing his clearance which returns to the feet of Jota. Not in the right tempo, the Portuguese defense is surprised on the second goal of Firmino who finds himself completely alone on the free kick taken by Tsimikas. The admittedly heavily overhauled Reds defense failed to impress either. Of the three Portuguese goals, Liverpool’s defense is misaligned and covers the opposing forwards. Konaté covers Joao Mario on the third goal, Gomez covers Yaremchuk on the second goal and Tsimikas covers Ramos on the first.