Klopp praises Benfica keeper

Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp heaped praise on Benfica keeper Odysseas Vlachodimos for denying the English side a bigger victory after their 3-1 win in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Tuesday.

Liverpool took the upper hand in the tie as goals from Ibrahima Konate, Sadio Mane and Luis Diaz earned them a comfortable victory in Lisbon and it could have been much worse for the Portuguese club.

"We should have scored much more," Klopp told BT Sport. "I think, mainly because of their goalkeeper, credit to him. Their goalkeeper was probably the game's best player. We played well, but he made a couple of really good saves."

Kevin de Bruyne scored the only goal for Manchester City in their 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid at the Etihad Stadium. Photo: Reuters

Klopp said he was satisfied with the win and with their two-goal advantage ahead of next week's second leg at Anfield.

"It was a tough game but I expected it," Klopp said. "They had these counter-attacks as they recovered the ball in the midfield that was a threat. It's not always easy to keep the ball all the time. The further you go, the more risk you take. And they have really good players."

After Liverpool dominated the first half, Benfica made a game of it after the break at a packed Luz stadium, that roared their team back into the contest when Darwin Nunez scored in the 49th minute to make it 2-1.

"It was tough when they scored because the crowd was there immediately because they knew that 2-0 is nothing, it's nice but nothing more than that and we saw it after they scored. The game was much more open than we expected.

"That's it. We won. Two goals up. Halftime. Not more, not less. It would have been nice to score another one, but let's keep going. We have a good result, we know much more about our opponent going to the second game and are aware of their quality."

Meanwhile, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola called on his players to control their emotions in their Champions League quarter-final return leg at Atletico Madrid next week.

Kevin De Bruyne's 70th minute goal earned City a 1-0 win on Tuesday in a game that had several flashpoints, including an incident in which a prone Jack Grealish was struck in the head from close range by a clearance from Angel Correa. Read full story "We have to control our emotions and do what we have to do," Guardiola told reporters after Tuesday's game. "There will be a referee there and we have to play our game.

"(Atletico) have faced this kind of knockout stages many times and it will be a good test for us with our maturity in this game. Jack reacted really well and stayed focused on what we needed to do."

The Spaniard added that City would not simply look to defend their 1-0 advantage in Madrid and would be looking to kill off the tie.

"We've won the game with 1-0 and after 1-0 it was a little bit different. All the players start to press a little bit higher," Guardiola said. "If the game starts on the good side for Atletico, maybe they come back in to the game."