Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp said that his rival Villarreal, led by coach Unai Emery, "the King of Cups", deserved his place in the Champions League semi-finals.
Liverpool tied 3-3 with its guest Benfica in the second leg of the quarter-finals on Wednesday, to cross into the semi-finals with a 6-4 victory on the aggregate score.
The Reds went up to face Villarreal, who made a big surprise by eliminating Bayern Munich from the quarter-finals.
"I followed the results, the match was great, I saw excerpts, but in order to beat Juventus and Bayern Munich, it means that you deserve your place in the semi-finals," Klopp said. ".
Emery won the European League title 3 times with Seville, before leading Villarreal to the title of the same tournament last season, and also won 4 titles in the local cups with Paris Saint-Germain.
Although the Spanish coach's tenure with Arsenal was disappointing, he managed to lead the English team to the European League final in 2019.
Klopp was in a state of tolerance with his team's poor performance against Benfica at "Anfield" yesterday, Wednesday, as they conceded 3 times, in addition to canceling two goals for the away team due to offside.
"If I was not happy the day we qualified for the semi-finals of the Champions League, someone should punch me," he said. "We made 7 changes to the starting line-up, and that caused the defensive linemen to participate together for the first time, and it was about the details and maintaining 100 percent focus. %".
"It was not exactly what we wanted, but it is not important at all because if we play the best game of the season tonight we are not likely to reach the final, we qualified, that's all that matters, and I'm really happy."
Benfica found several holes in the Liverpool defense led by Ibrahim Konate, Joel Matip, Joe Gomez and Costas Tsimikas, but Klopp was understanding.
"The only thing we know is that the four players have never played together before, when you lose players like Virgil (Van Dijk) these things become normal, it's not a problem at all, Benfica kept his faith and kept trying, and that's all, he was. It is important that we make changes and maintain our success, that is acceptable."