Slot says avoiding Champions League knockout round more important than being top
Raphinha strike earns Barca comeback win at Benfica and place in last 16 with Liverpool

While Liverpool narrowly missed clinching top spot with a game to spare in the Champions League despite a 2-1 defeat of French side Lille on Tuesday, manager Arne Slot said finishing in the top eight and avoiding two playoff games was the most important thing.
Liverpool's win guaranteed the Premier League leaders a top-eight finish and a berth in the last 16, thus avoiding the two-legged knockout phase facing the teams who finish ninth to 24th.
Barcelona, who staged a dramatic 5-4 comeback win over Benfica with a stoppage-time goal by Raphinha, are snapping at Liverpool's heels, three points behind with one round of the league phase to play.
“If in tennis you are the No 1 seed it is better to face the No 24 than the 12, but it is a ranking based on years,” Slot said.
“Now we are in a new format when some teams are high in the league table because they had a lucky draw and some teams are low because they have a very difficult draw.
Mo Salah tucks the ball away with a curled finish 🎯🎯
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“It is far off to say it is an advantage to be one or two. You might be lucky, you might be very unlucky.
“For me, it doesn't tell me anything. The most important thing is we managed to skip a round.”
Mohamed Salah scored his 50th European goal for Liverpool and substitute Harvey Elliott sealed the victory in the 67th minute after Jonathan David had levelled for Lille.
Liverpool set a club record for their longest spell without conceding a goal in European competition, with 599 minutes elapsing between Christian Pulisic's goal for AC Milan in the opening game and David's strike on Tuesday.
In between, Liverpool kept clean sheets against Bologna, RB Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen, Real Madrid and Girona, and topped the 572 minutes without conceding in the 2005-06 season under Rafael Benitez.
This game has had everything and more 😲
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Benfica and Barcelona have been putting on a show 👇
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“Very pleased,” Slot said. “Where I put everything down to [is], first of all, quality of the players and second these players have a quality work rate.
“If you combine those two things it is very difficult to score against the team. The nice thing for me is we keep clean sheets not by defending a lot, we keep clean sheets by attacking a lot.”
Slot said patience was required against a Lille side that maintained their composure even after being reduced to 10 men in the second half, showing why they had been unbeaten in 21 successive games across all competitions.
“They don't have the best players in the world [but] it is how disciplined they are, how hard they want to work,” Slot said.
Salah netted his 50th European goal for Liverpool in the 34th minute when he sprinted onto a long pass from Curtis Jones before curling a shot around goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier.
You've never seen a Champions League goal like this 🤣👇
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Despite being Mandi's dismissal in the 59th minute, David levelled for the visitors three minutes later when he hammered home the loose ball after Hakon Arnar Haraldsson's shot was blocked.
Liverpool quickly regained the lead when a corner was headed out to the edge of the box and Elliott fired a crisp shot that took a wild deflection into the net in the 67th minute.
Raphinha scored deep into stoppage time to hand Barcelona a dramatic win at Benfica after a hat-trick from Vangelis Pavlidis gave the hosts a two-goal halftime lead.
Greek striker Pavlidis opened the scoring after two minutes with a tap-in before Robert Lewandowski equalised from the spot as VAR awarded Barca a penalty for a Tomas Araujo foul on Alejandro Balde in the 11th minute.
Pavlidis restored Benfica's lead, capitalising on a poor run out by goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who left the forward with an open goal. The 26-year-old bagged his third with a penalty after Szczesny fouled Kerem Akturkoglu on the half-hour mark.
A blunder by Benfica keeper Anatoliy Trubin also proved costly as he cleared the ball straight onto Raphinha's head and into the net for a bizarre goal as the visitors pulled one back in the 64th to make it 3-2.
Barcelona's defensive misfortune continued, however, and Benfica extended their lead again four minutes later thanks to an own goal from Ronald Araujo before Lewandowski scored his second with another clinical penalty in the 78th.
Substitute Eric Garcia then equalised with a towering header from a fine Pedri cross three minutes from time before Raphinha found the winner six minutes into stoppage time from a quick counterattack that stunned the home crowd.
Reuters
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