Liverpool are through to the Champions League semi-finals but Peter Crouch and Steve McManaman saw some anger from Luis Diaz on Wednesday night.
The Reds were already 3-1 up from the first leg against Benfica and had one foot in the semi-finals.
Ibrahima Konate had them on their way before a Goncalo Ramos leveller on the night.
Two Roberto Firmino goals effectively sealed Liverpool’s passage to the semi-finals, with Roman Yaremchuk and Darwin Nunez goals ultimately inconsequential.
Liverpool now face Villarreal in the semi-finals, with Manchester City or Real Madrid awaiting in the final.
Liverpool weren’t quite at their best against Benfica and will know they need to take it up another level in the last four.
For instance, Liverpool should have been leading at the break but wastefulness just gave Benfica a glimmer of hope.
One moment saw James Milner play Roberto Firmino in on goal, and instead of going for the shot, he tried to find Luis Diaz.
Passing with the outside of his foot, Firmino’s ball didn’t have enough on it and Alejandro Grimaldo was able to get back and clear the danger.
That moment didn’t matter in the end but Diaz was clearly gutted to not get on the scoresheet against Benfica; as a former Porto player, that’s no surprise!
Pundits Steve McManaman and Peter Crouch both spotted Diaz’s anger at Firmino’s pass and spoke about it at half time on BT Sport.
McManaman criticised Firmino’s pass, suggesting it would have been a tap-in for Diaz if the Brazilian had passed it left-footed.
Crouch noted that Diaz was ‘fuming’ with the pass – something McManaman agreed with – and that you could see exactly what the Colombian thought as a potential goal was taken away from him.
“This should have been in the back of the net,” said McManaman. “Firmino goes with not enough power with the outside of his right foot, he should have just pinged it across with his left foot. This should be a tap-in.”
“Luis Diaz was fuming,” said Crouch, with McManaman adding ‘rightly so!’.
“I think you can see what he thought of it, he just wants a bit more pace on the pass from a man of Firmino’s ability, Diaz was fuming,” added Crouch.
By the second half, that moment was forgotten as Diaz was all smiles again with Firmino, celebrating his goals in front of the Kop.
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