General News Hop

 Liverpool took a firm grip of their Champions League tie with Benfica as goals from Ibrahima Konate, Sadio Mane and Luis Diaz earned them a 3–1 victory in Lisbon in their quarter-final first leg on Tuesday. Konate opened the scoring with a close-range header from a corner and Mane extended Liverpool’s lead 30 minutes into what was a one-sided first half, with Mohamed Salah, Diaz and Naby Keita all passing up great scoring chances. Yet five minutes after the break, 22-year-old French defender Konate completely missed a cross and allowed in-form striker Darwin Nunez to score and put Benfica, roared on by a sold-out Estadio da Luz, back into the game. Benfica gained in confidence and briefly took charge but former Porto winger Diaz, who never lost a match against their bitter rivals Benfica, scored on the counter-attack after a Keita through ball. Assessing the performances in Lisbon, Tony Evans has provided his player ratings in the photo gallery above. To move on to the next photo...

  Spaniard would be perfect fit at Old Trafford but the timing is not ideal with Qatar 2022 finals starting in November Luis Enrique takes his Spain side to Barcelona on Friday for a friendly against Albania. Despite hosting their games all over the country, Spain seldom play in the country’s second city and this will be their first friendly in Barcelona since 2004. The issue of Catalan independence has calmed and the game will be at Espanyol’s 41,000-seater home on the outskirts of Barcelona, where many residents are internal immigrants who would identify with Spain anyway. Enrique, 51, knows the country better than most. Born and raised in the northern city of Gijon, Asturias, he started out at local club Sporting, which he still supports. He stood on the terraces near the ultra fans, once hiding a copy of the local newspaper from his parents when he was pictured near them. He was still a teenager when he broke into the first team and roomed with veteran Irish defender Kevin...