Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was speaking after his side’s 3-3 Champions League draw with Benfica
Jurgen Klopp has revealed Diogo Jota suffered a knock as Liverpool reached the Champions League semi-finals, but doesn’t think it will rule him out of Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Man City. The Portuguese started in attack alongside Roberto Firmino and Luis Diaz but were replaced by Mohamed Salah just before the hour-mark.
But when asked about possible injuries, with one eye on facing Pep Guardiola’s side, the German revealed as things stand, his squad remains fully fit ahead of their trip to Wembley.
“Diogo got a knock in the first half,” Klopp told reporters. “I don’t know about Mo. Nobody told me yet. The two physios, nobody said to me Mo has a problem. At the moment, everybody should be fine.”
Goals from Ibrahima Konate and a Roberto Firmino brace saw the Reds race into a 3-1 lead on the night, and a 6-2 lead on aggregate, only for Benfica to peg them back and earn a 3-3 draw. However, Liverpool still progressed to set up a Champions League semi-final clash with Villarreal.
Klopp defeated the La Liga outfit in the Europa League semi-finals back in 2016, only to lose to the current Yellow Submarine manager, Unai Emery, in the final when he was in charge of Sevilla. And having seen Villarreal knock out both Juventus and Bayern Munich this season, the Liverpool boss is taking nothing for granted.
“Tough, tough, tough. Both games Villarreal deserved to get through,” he said. “I didn’t analyze them because we watched the game and you try to figure out both teams.
“Real quality and Villarreal has probably the most successful cup competition manager in world football so he knows what he is doing. The team is really strong.
“Two different approaches away and home. It will be difficult but it is the semi-final of the Champions League. If it wouldn’t be difficult, something would be really wrong.”
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