Result: Liverpool 4-1 Benfica (5-3 agg)
2205 That's all you're getting tonight folks, congrats to Liverpool and Fulham fans out there. If you're hungry for more sport, check out our US Masters text commentary here on the site, which will run until the end of the first round late tonight. In any case, good night and good luck.
2201 Liverpool will face Atletico Madrid, with a home tie in the second leg, while Fulham will meet more German opposition in the shape of Hamburg, and must again travel in their second leg. Both fixtures will take place on Thursday 22 April and the second leg a week later.
2200 Just waiting to see who their semi-final opponents will be, should only be a minute or two.
2156 And Fulham are through to the last four as well. A 3-1 aggregate win, thanks to Bobby Zamora's goal in Wolfsburg tonight after 20 seconds of the match. It was backs to the wall after that, but congratulations to Fulham and you'd have to fancy them against either Hamburg (likely opponents) or Standard Liege (likely to go out in a minute).
2155 That's it folks, Liverpool are into the Europa League semi-finals. Thoroughly deserved, Benfica weren't up to this task, they started well but fell apart after Liverpool's first goal. The Reds conjured up some excellent breakaway scores to stretch their lead and were full value for their victory.
90mins Liverpool passing it around with ease now. Three minutes injury time. The game is fizzling out and neither side are threatening.
89mins In Germany by the way, Fulham are about to knock out the reigning German champs Wolfsburg thanks to a 1-0 away win and, by all accounts, a sterling defensive effort. Fair play to Roy Hodgson's men.
87mins Liverpool working hard to win back the ball and they are now bossing Benfica. Torres and Gerrard are subbed off for Ngog and Aquilani. This time, the substitution makes sense.
85mins Five minutes to go and Benfica look somewhat deflated now. Liverpool should be able to see this out comfortably and advance to the semi-finals against either Atletico Madrid (Torres' old club) or Valencia (Benitez's former charges).
81mins Amorim goes on a mazy run, Lucas crunches in a decent challenge and Torres is played in behind a defence that's way, way too high. Torres runs unopposed at the keeper, waits, waits and when the sub keeper commits, he dinks it over to finish. Very composed. And that should be that.
GOAL TO LIVERPOOL
79mins Julio Cesar, the Benfica keeper, is subbed off for reasons unclear. He doesn't seem to be injured, he's just looking a bit vacant. Perhaps a concussion? Anyway, he's off.
77mins Holy moley, Dirk Kuyt showing all the tricks - two nutmegs inside Benfica's box as he sends in a dangerous low cross, but it's cleared for a corner, which leads to nothing.
75mins Benfica drive up the other end of the pitch and a Benayoun trip yields another free kick at the edge of the area. Cardozo steps up again and his curler hits Torres in the head and misses the near post by inches. Reina was beaten. It's not over yet.
74mins Corner to the Pool and Gerrard fizzes one in right in front of Benfica keeper Julio Cesar, who has a real problem with crosses. Dirk Kuyt stands in front of him, but the keeper is too busy pushing Kuyt to notice the ball almost sailing into his net. It is eventually cleared.
73mins The pace has picked up considerably now, with both sides working harder. There could well be more goals tonight.
69mins The free, central on the edge of the area, is touched off to Cardozo, who blasts it low under the wall. It fizzes straight into the net past a helpless Reina. That changes everything folks, if Benfica can conjure up another, they go through.
GOAL TO BENFICA
68mins Benfica have brought on Brazilian striker Alan Kardec, who shows some sweet moves to set Ramires free to drive at the Pool defence. He's hauled down at the edge of the box and it's a free in an excellent position.
65mins Torres' turn to go fishing for a peno. He turns inside Luisao but his touch is heavy and the ball is gone. So Torres makes sure he runs into Luisao and bounces off him before dropping like a stone. Ref waves it away, spot on. Nowhere near as bad as Cardozo's dive, but still a dive. Boo-urns.
63mins Benfica now need two goals to go through, as Man United fans will already know. They do not look like scoring one.
61mins Cardozo flops in the Liverpool penalty area - shocker of a dive. He'd be laughed off the stage, he would. Ref doesn't give it a second look. Replay shows it to be even worse - no one near him and he goes down like he's been clubbed by the phantom clubber. Rhubarb.
58mins Another terrific goal from the Reds. A Benfica free kick is poorly delivered and gives Liverpool a chance to break. Benayoun drives at the defenders, who are struggling to get back. He ignores Torres on his left and plays in Kuyt on the right edge of the box, who slides to play a great first-time ball into Torres, who taps home. Smooth break, swish goal.
GOAL TO LIVERPOOL
56mins And now Benfica step it up - finally stringing a few passes together in the Liverpool half and keeping some pressure on. Their final ball in continues to be poor and inaccurate, but at least they're trying a bit harder now.
54mins More of that - Liverpool decide to up the ante and apply pressure high up the pitch on the Benfica defenders. They don't like it and the Reds win possession, free up Gerrard on the right wing and he fizzes in a great low cross. Luisao intercepts and almost beats his own keeper, who scrambles low and left to keep his side in it.
52mins Liverpool need to keep hold of it and Benfica need to sharpen up and pressure the home team. Benfica's style of play is quite Arsenal-esque, pass and probe or break quickly, but their accuracy is well below par this evening and it's easy so far for the 'Pool.
50mins It's quite an open game, with plenty of room in midfield for both teams, but poor passing means that possession is being traded cheaply way too often.
47mins Nice move down the left from Benfica wins a corner. Another fine delivery - dipping, with pace - is met firmly by Carragher. He seems to be in the right place at the right time every corner so far. Either that or every corner is exactly the same depth. I should probably look out for that. Hopefully something more interesting will happen so I won't have to.
45mins Johnson lashes a long ball forward from his own half and Torres somehow manages to stray offside. He laughs to himself as he jogs back. Like I said, sneaky.
2105 Ready to go for the second half at Anfield. Torres gingerly extends his right knee. Not a good thing to show opposing defenders. Unless it's a double bluff, the sneaky Spaniard.
2100 Mark Wright is sitting in on the 3e panel, between two people who've clearly never played football. One of them looks like he's never extended himself past a brisk walk. The former England centre-half shifts uncomfortably on his couch as these experts offer their expert opinions. Who am I to talk.
2055 In the other quarter-final ties this evening, Fulham are still 1-0 up away to the German champions Wolfsburg, leading 3-1 on aggregate. Atletico Madrid and Valencia are still at 0-0, 2-2 on agg, while Hamburg have taken a 2-1 halftime lead away to Standard Liege and now lead 4-2 in total.
45mins Half-time at Anfield and Liverpool will be very happy with their evening's work so far. Benfica looked very dangerous early on but the home side has restricted them to a couple of half chances. The Reds have pounced on and converted their own opportunities and the visitors look a little dispirited now. Liverpool seem happy enough to sit back now, which hopefully won't continue or else it could backfire as we've seen elsewhere in European competition lately.
42mins Free kick to Benfica around the halfway line, it's floated in and with their attackers challenging for headers, the ball breaks to Ramires at the edge of the six-yard box on the right side. He bangs it goalward, but a very fortunate deflection keeps the score at 2-0. That was close.
41min Right back Luiz, who playing really well in an advanced role, robs Kuyt deep in the Liverpool half and rolls it over for Martins to hit - but the midfielder skews it high and wide.
40min Messy exchanges in the middle of the park over the last few minutes, neither side able to string together passes.
37min Kyrgiakos fouls Cardozo about 30 yards out and the same player gets up and strikes a firm effort straight at Reina. Good shot from a long way out, but easy enough for the keeper.
36min Benfica continue to press, but their attacks are wilting now, with their final ball of really poor quality the last few times.
33min Really, really nice goal from the home team. Mascherano wins possession just outside Liverpool's own box, then two quick passes through the middle and Gerrard drives at the back four. He releases Lucas behind the defensive line and the Brazilian calmly rounds the keeper and prods home. Well done the Reds.
GOAL TO LIVERPOOL
29min Confusion reigned after the goal there as a linesman raises his flag, presumably for offside. Liverpool players rush the ref and the ref awards the goal after a moment. Not sure what happened exactly - Kuyt was near the keeper, but if anything Benfica's goalie was trying to push Kuyt, who just ignored him and headed home. No foul in my eyes, bad keeping for sure. Watch the ball mate. There's also another ref loitering around the goalmouth in this competition, and he appears to find nothing wrong with it either. That, or he's been bored into a comatose state.
28min The corner is swung in by Gerrard and Kuyt, right in front of the keeper, nods it in.
GOAL TO LIVERPOOL
26min Back come Liverpool and Benayoun drives at the right back, Amorim, who puts it out for a corner.
24min Excellent deliveries on these corners, but Carragher meets it well. A few seconds later, Di Maria's attempted cross is blocked by Johnson and it's another corner. Carragher dispatches that one. As long as they keep finding his head, the home side can cope with this pressure.
22min Martins tries his luck from 40 yards, it's deflected out for a corner, which is headed out by Kuyt for another.
20min Much more even game after a strong start from Benfica - both sides look dangerous coming forward, with the visitors' intricate passing looking like it could open up the home defence at any stage.
19min Genuine foul this time on Benayoun out on the wing, so another chance to swing one in for the Reds, but Gerrard can't beat the first man.
17min Di Maria is played in by Aimar - the two best players on the pitch so far - but Angel's shot finds the side netting from a tight angle.
15min Benfica just can't clear the ball from that corner and header tennis in and around the box yields the chance for Stevie G to cross - he finds the head of Torres, but he is offside. Smooth, united step up from the Benfica defence there.
14min Gerrard 'wins' a free kick in a decent position about 30 yards out. Blatant dive folks, in front of the ref, but he gets the decision. His cross is cleared for a corner.
12min Transfer target Angel Di Maria shows us a bit of tekkers - he creates an inch of space on the right hand touchline and fires in an audacious effort off the outside of his left which floats over Reina and also over the bar. Cheeky.
10min Bettre stuff from the Reds - neat one-touch passing in the middle frees tonight's makeshift left back Daniel Agger, who, predictably, turns onto his right and floats a (very) deep cross to Dirk Kuyt, whose ambitious volley attempt is blocked down and cleared.
8min Liverpool are more or less trapped in their own half at the start of this game. Aimar on the ball a lot and the home side are struggling to keep hold of the ball early doors.
6min Torres on the receiving end of another pretty bullish challenge in the air from Benfica's no-nonsense centre half Sidnei.
2010 Early goal for Fulham - Bobby Zamora grabs a vital away goal for the Cottagers and they take a 3-1 aggregate lead in Germany away to Wolfsburg.
3min Free kick is low and into the wall, but Aimar is first to the rebound - but his effort is deflected by a vital last ditch challenge from Carragher.
2min Aimar drives at the Liverpool defenders and Carragher bundles him over just before he gets into the box. Free kick in a promising position, as they say.
1min Torres gets a very early knock in a robust challenge and is limping a bit already. Gerrard playing very high up the field early on.
2005 We're off at Anfield and the Fields of Athenry is getting an early airing.
2004 Gerrard, Torres, Benayoun all on the field, but suspension rules out Babel and Insua, while Maxi Rodriguez is ineligible.
2003 Team news for this evening:
Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Kyrgiakos, Agger, Mascherano, Lucas, Kuyt, Gerrard, Benayoun, Torres.
Subs: Cavalieri, Aquilani, Ngog, Degen, El Zhar, Ayala, Pacheco.
Benfica: Julio Cesar, Ruben Amorim, Luisao, Sidnei, David Luiz, Javi Garcia, Carlos Martins, Ramires, Aimar, Di Maria, Cardozo.
Subs: Moreira, Airton, Maxi Pereira, Fabio Coentrao, Felipe Menezes, Alan Kardec, Eder Luis.
2000 Alright, the teams are on the pitch, the ever loyal fans of Anfield are banging out 'You'll Never Walk Alone' - here we go.
So the big, bad Premier League now has no teams left in Europe's premier competition, the Champions League. Zero. Squat.
But the richest league in the footballing world has two representatives left in the last eight of the much-maligned Europa League, which I will insist on referring to as the UEFA Cup for the remainder of this evening.
Liverpool host Benfica at Anfield this evening and whereas the once mighty club would have scoffed at the UEFA Cup at the start of the season, it is now their only chance of silverware this year. And it is the coolest-looking trophy in soccer, so why not give it a go.
Fulham, the conquerors of Juventus, take a slender 2-1 advantage to Germany where they face Wolfsburg. There are still fans sitting in Craven Cottage since their side knocked out the Old Lady weeks ago, transfixed in a state of pure bliss. Go on the Fulham.
The other two quarter-finals see Standard Liege face Hamburg and Atletico Madrid battle Valencia. Meh.
We'll kick off properly at 8pm.
