Liverpool's Klopp wary of 'King of the Cups' Emery in Champions League semi-final

Jurgen Klopp says he is wary of facing a man he dubbed "King of Cups" when his Liverpool face Unai Emery's Villarreal in the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Liverpool drew 3-3 with Benfica in their quarter-final second leg on Wednesday to go through to the last four with a 6-4 aggregate scoreline.

The win sets up a meeting with Villarreal, who pulled off a shock victory over Bayern Munich in the last eight.

"I saw the results, the game was very impressive. I only picked up pieces but to beat Juventus and Bayern Munich they deserve to be in the Champions League semi-finals," said Klopp.

"Unai Emery is the king of the cups, it is unbelievable what he is doing. But give me a bit of time to prepare it properly," he added with a grin.

Emery's sobriquet is well earned. The Spaniard is a three-time Europa League winner with Sevilla and triumphed in the same competition with Villarreal last season - the club's first major trophy - having also guided Arsenal to the 2019 final. He also collected four domestic cups during a two-year stint at Paris Saint-Germain.

Klopp was happy to overlook Liverpool's shortcomings against Benfica where as well as conceding three goals they also saw two efforts from the visitors ruled out for offside.

LIVERPOOL RATINGS: Alisson Becker - 6. The Brazilian was left exposed on all three Benfica goals. He made an excellent save at the near post from Nunez just before the striker scored his team’s third. Reuters

Liverpool's defence, featuring Ibrahima Konate and Joel Matip in the middle and Joe Gomez and Kostas Tsimikas at fullback, was opened up with some ease by the Portuguese side but Klopp said that was understandable.

"The day we qualify for the Champions League semi-final and I'm not happy