BT Sport pundit Rio Ferdinand has explained that he was blown away by the bench Jurgen Klopp named for the Reds’ 3-3 Champions League draw with SL Benfica at Anfield last night.
Following the 3-1 first-leg victory in Lisbon last week, the result was enough to see the Anfield outfit progress through to the semi-finals 6-4 on aggregate and set up a tie with Spanish side Villarreal in the semi-final of Europe’s premier competition.
Klopp made seven changes from the Liverpool side that played out a 2-2 draw with Manchester City on Sunday and the absence of some of his star men was evident.
The Portuguese outfit calved the home side open on too many occasions and looked dangerous each time they attacked.
Joe Gomez, who’s naturally a centre back, deputised for Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back whilst Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane and Mo Salah, to name a few, had to settle for a place on the bench.
You can’t blame our German boss for having one eye on Saturday’s huge FA Cup semi-final clash with City at Wembley and thankfully we got the job done last night at L4.
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As well as being wowed by Bobby Firmino, who bagged a brace, ex-Manchester United defender Ferdinand claimed he wasn’t sure whether he’s ‘ever seen a bench as good’ as the one Klopp named last night.
It was certainly refreshing to see that even when some of our key players aren’t in the starting XI we can still score goals.
The defensive performance certainly wasn’t the best, but it’s something Jurgen will be keen to improve.
You can catch Ferdinand speaking below via @btsportfootball on Twitter.
"Their bench today was FRIGHTENING!" 😳
"I don't know if I've seen many better benches than that. It was a who's who of top drawer players."
No Salah, Mané, van Dijk or Fabinho. No problem for Liverpool.
🎙 @rioferdy5 was suitably impressed.#UCLTONIGHT pic.twitter.com/7givtb5C8P
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 13, 2022