Benfica, which recovers Moroccan Adel Taarabt, and Liverpool will give life this Tuesday, in the first leg of the quarterfinals of the Champions League, which will be the fifth round of the top continental competition between both teams, in the desire of the Portuguese, with Uruguayan Darwin Núñez as star, to break the predictions they give as favorites of passing round to the English team.
So far, of the four previous qualifiers between the two, the first three were won by the English (1977-78, 83-84, 94-85), but the last one fell on the Portuguese side (2005-06).
Now, Benfica hosts the English in Lisbon with the hope of passing for the first time in the quarterfinals in the 'Champions' format (starting in the 1992-93 season), after managing in March to leave an Ajax Amsterdam, who also started as a favorite, and Liverpool after leaving Inter Milan on the road.
How dominant Liverpool has been in the Premier League in recent months, narrowing a gap of more than ten points to just one with Manchester City, contrasted with what it cost the 'Reds' to eliminate Inter Milan in the second round.
The focus on the league may have distracted Liverpool's European ambitions, which is coming up with a simple, a priori tie for what was in the pots. Benfica will be the bread in the sandwich of matches against Manchester City in which Jürgen Klopp's team will play the Premier and FA Cup.
The positive side for Liverpool is that this delusional season they have fallen with the best and widest roster of recent times. With players like Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz, the team no longer depends only on Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah. In midfield, Thiago Alcantara, who took many months to find his place, is in the prime of his career at Anfield.
In defense, the incorporation of Ibrahima Konaté has made it possible to rotate and avoid injuries like those of last year. The team has not even noticed the absence of Trent Alexander-Arnold, injured, and the patch of putting Joe Gomez there was a result against Watford. The Englishman assisted Jota's first goal.
This tie may also have a greater degree of importance for Liverpool in their task of convincing Salah to stay. The Egyptian has not yet reached an agreement to extend his contract, which expires in June 2023, and there have been discrepancies between Klopp and his agent. Staying alive in the Champions League can be a push to get Salah, eliminated from the World Cup by his teammate Mané, to sign his renewal for once.
For their part, the incarnado team dreams of going through the quarterfinals, which last played in 2016, and to enter a semifinals that are adverse to them as “Champions”, since on their only four occasions they have always been eliminated: Milan (1994/95), Barcelona (2005/2006), Chelsea (2011/12) and Bayern Munich ( 2015/16).
In the Portuguese League, Benfica is not experiencing its best season, since it is third and is 12 points behind the leader Oporto, after the defeat in the Sporting de Braga fief this weekend by 3-2, a distance that could be extended if the “dragons” win Santa Clara this Monday.
To host Liverpool, it will still not count on Lucas Veríssimo and Rodrigo Pinho, who continue to leave due to injuries. Instead, he will recover Moroccan midfielder Adel Taarabt, after the injury that prevented him from playing against Braga, and Seferovic, who joined last weekend.
Within the starting eleven, one of the basic players, and trusted by his followers, is the scorer Darwin Núñez, who gave the victory against Ajax and is “pichichi” of the Portuguese League with 21 goals. Other names are Rafa Silva and Everton Cebolinha, and Taarabt and Spaniard Alex Grimaldo are also expected.
Probable lineups
Benfica: Vlachodimos; Gilberto, Vertonghen, Nicolas Otamendi, Alex Grimaldo; Rafa Silva, Julian Weigl, Adel Taarabt, Everton Cebolinha; Darwin Nunez, Seferovic.
Liverpool: Alisson; Gomez, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Fabinho, Thiago; Salah, Mané, Luis Díaz.
Referee: Jesús Gil Manzano (Spain).
Stadium: Estádio da Luz.
Hora: 3:00 p.m.
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