Champions League Draw: Liverpool To Face Roma In Semifinals

Liverpool will meet AS Roma in the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League.

Friday’s last-four draw in Nyon, Switzerland, pitted the Reds against the Italian club.

The first leg of the series will be played at Anfield on Tuesday, April 24, with the second match taking place at Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday, May 2. Both games will kick off at 2:45 p.m. ET.

Bayern Munich will take on Real Madrid in the other semifinal, with the winners of both series to meet Saturday, May 26 in Kiev, Ukraine, in the final.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp offered his reaction to Liverpool’s pairing with AS Roma in the Champions League semi-finals and highlighted the difficult challenge his side will face in its attempts to take the next step in the tournament.

“Because I knew I’d have to say something after it, I tried to think about what I feel, but it was not that I thought ‘Thank God not Bayern, thank God not Real Madrid, yippee Roma’ or the other way around,” Klopp told LiverpoolFC.com immediately after the draw.

“It is just the draw and I know it is very exciting, but it is good because the most important news is we are still in the competition. Whichever opponent we would have got, I would have said there is a chance because it is football –- so there is a chance against Roma.

“But if anybody thinks this is the easiest draw then I cannot help this person; they obviously didn’t see both (of Roma’s) games against Barcelona. In the first result, the 4-1, it was not like the game was. It was (Lionel) Messi genius against a good side of Roma. The second leg was outstanding, it was outstanding what they did. They should have probably won four- or five-nil. I was really impressed.

“It is work and no problem with that and now we are looking forward of course to the first game.”

Read more from Klopp on LiverpoolFC.com >>