Victory will take Klopp’s men another step closer to sealing a return to the Champions League next season just days after they booked their place in the semi-finals of the competition for the first time in a decade.

The five-time European champions thrashed runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City 5-1 on aggregate in two thrilling quarter-final performances.

Liverpool lead fifth-placed Chelsea by 10 points, although the reigning Premier League champions do have a game in hand, in the fight for a place in the top four thanks to a run of just two league defeats in 24 matches.

However, one of those reverses came a shocking 1-0 loss at Swansea just eight days after a memorable 4-3 win over City at Anfield, something Klopp is keen to avoid a repeat of.

“We mature constantly. The boys get more and more used to situations like that,” said Klopp after beating City for a third time in four meetings this season.

“If you could say something bad about us in the past few months, it is on a good day we can beat everybody and on a bad day we lose, (we) concede cheap goals. We work on that. We are still in a development phase, that’s how it is but already we are a good team.”

Vital to Liverpool’s greater consistency has been the presence of centre-back Virgil van Dijk.

The Dutch captain cost a world record £75m ($106 million) for a defender in January, but has lived up to his price tag in marshalling a defence that has conceded just seven goals in their past 13 matches in all competitions.

Van Dijk has brought a leadership previously lacking in Liverpool’s back line and has helped accentuate huge improvements in those around him such as goalkeeper Loris Karius, centre-back partner Dejan Lovren and inexperienced full-backs Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Liverpool rode out what Klopp called a “whirlwind” first 45 minutes from an all-out attacking approach from Pep Guardiola in midweek, conceding only once when Van Dijk claimed he had been fouled before Raheem Sterling set up Gabriel Jesus.

Of City’s 20 shots on Tuesday night, 12 were blocked as Liverpool protected Karius’s goal and showed another side to the fast-flowing attacking football led by Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane that has characterised their season.

Salah and Firmino were on target to turn the second leg around in the second-half and take the prolific front three’s tally for the season to a combined 79 goals.

Klopp must decide whether to field all three again on Saturday or hand some of his weary squad a rest with the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals just over a week away.

Salah in particular could be left out after only completing one full training session on his return from a muscle injury before playing 89 minutes at the Etihad.

Bournemouth enjoy a 10-point cushion above the relegation zone and winger Ryan Fraser believes they have nothing to lose from their trip to Anfield.

“Against the top teams, you need to forget about the relegation battle and enjoy it,” said the Scot. “We went to Old Trafford earlier in the season and in the second half we battered them, but lost 1-0 which wasn’t nice. You have to relish these moments.”

Two of Thailand’s goals were generated by Kanjana Sung-Ngoen who also helped the Kingdom reach the FIFA World Cup Final in Canada four years ago. The other goal was scored by Silawan Intamee.

Thailand, with one defeat (0-4) to China and two wins including a 6-1 victory over Jordan, finished second in the group and joined pool leader China in the semi-finals of the Asian Cup for the first time in 23 years.

Thailand will take on the winner from Group B while China will face runner-up in Group B on April 17.

The World Cup Final slot also earns the Thai team a Bt 20 million incentive money from team’s manager Nualphan Lamsam. Thailand finished third in Group B in their first historic Final in 2015.

Nualphan Lamsam

China’s Feng fired a five-under 67 in windy conditions at the Ko Olina Golf Club in Kapolei, Hawaii.

Canada’s Brooke Henderson, Sweden’s Martina Edberg and Kang Hae-Ji of South Korea are tied for second at four-under 68.

After making her only bogey of the round on the first hole, Feng drained six birdies in the final 17 holes.

“I saved pars early in my round and then I got my confidence back,” said Feng. “My putting was really good and I’m happy about that because it hasn’t been good.”

Feng has finished in the top 30 in all five of her starts this year, including two top 10 finishes. She said a lot of hard work went into getting to number one in the world.

“I was like, ‘you know what? I’m 27 years old already’, if I want to get to No. 1 this is the time. So that was my goal and I did it,” she said.

Lizette Salas, who lost a playoff here in 2013, had a chance to join the other three in second place but made bogey on her final hole. She is tied for fifth at three-under 69 in a large group that also includes Canada’s Alena Sharp.

Sharp and fellow Canadians Brooke Henderson, Anne-Catherine Tanguay and Maude-Aimee Leblanc wore green and gold ribbons in memory of those killed in the Saskatchewan bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team.

Defending champion Cristie Kerr shot 71. She played with Hawaii-native Michelle Wie, who double-bogeyed her 15th hole to finish at even par 72.

Bankrolled by Qatari owners, PSG smashed the world transfer record by signing Brazilian star Neymar for 222 million euros ($264 million) in August and committed to completing another 180 million-euro deal for French teenage sensation Kylian Mbappe this summer when agreeing a one-year loan deal from Monaco a few weeks later.

Introduced by European football’s governing body in 2010, FFP limits clubs to making losses of no more than 30 million euros over three seasons.

“Preliminary investigations show that sponsorship contracts worth about 200 million euros have been ‘overstated’ at the Qatari-owned football club,” said the Financial Times report.

“Unless UEFA can be persuaded to assign a higher value to the sponsorship deals, the French club is on course to breach FFP rules, according to people familiar with the process.”

PSG issued a response to the report in a statement on Wednesday evening in which they hit out at “erroneous information… directed against the club in the British media”.

The statement added: “The procedure is ongoing. Paris Saint-Germain are in permanent contact with representatives from UEFA and will appear with complete equanimity before European football’s governing body on April 20.”

UEFA opened an investigation into PSG’s compliance with FFP just weeks after the deals for Neymar and Mbappe were completed.

“The investigation will focus on the compliance of the club with the break-even requirement, particularly in light of its recent transfer activity,” said a UEFA statement in September.

PSG have already fallen foul of FFP. The club were fined 60 million euros in prize money earned from playing in the Champions League in 2014.

Back then UEFA deemed PSG had artificially inflated their income using a sponsorship deal with another Qatari state-owned enterprise, the Qatar Tourism Authority.

“The contract between PSG and the Qatar Tourism Authority has been carefully considered and a fair value, significantly below that submitted by the club, has been assigned,” UEFA ruled at the time.

The sanctions could be far tougher for a second offence, with the possibility that PSG could even be excluded from competing in the Champions League unless they balance their accounts by the end of the club’s financial year in June.

“If the club is found in breach, anything less than the imposition of onerous sanctions is likely to lead PSG’s rivals, indeed the footballing world, to question the validity of Financial Fair Play,” Karish Andrews, a partner in the Sports Business Group at leading London law firm Lewis Silkin, told AFP.

With Neymar sidelined by injury, PSG’s attempts to win the Champions League for a first time fell flat again last month as they were dumped out 5-2 on aggregate by reigning champions Real Madrid in the last 16.

“Football is an unpredictable game and that’s why we love it so much,” Wenger told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday, after watching Barcelona crash out of the Champions League from a similar position on Tuesday.

“Now we just need to keep ourselves concentrated and to show our best on the pitch to keep (our lead).”

The Gunners are sixth in the Premier League, a huge 13 points off fourth-placed arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

Only the top four sides in the Premier League qualify for the Champions League. That means Arsenal’s only realistic route back into Europe’s most prestigious and lucrative tournament is by winning the second-string Europa League.

It is also the only trophy the Gunners can lift this season.

“Europa League is our top priority this season as in the league things aren’t going really well,” said Wenger, mindful that CSKA cannot be written off just yet.

“CSKA have a very strong midfield. Probably the strongest midfield in the Russian league. (Alan) Dzagoev and (Alexander) Golovin have proved their high level in the match in London.

“We’re currently in the last eight and we still need to show our best to advance into the semi-finals.”

Wenger has been in charge of Arsenal since 1996 but has yet to win any European trophy with the club, although they were beaten on penalties in the 2000 UEFA Cup final, the forerunner of the Europa League, and lost to Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League final.

– ‘Never relax’ –

Arsenal centre-back Shkodran Mustafi believes Roma’s 3-0 defeat of Barcelona, a result that sent the Italian side through on away goals, should serve as a note of caution for his team-mates.

“I think that the match between Roma and Barcelona should become a really good lesson for us ahead of the match with CSKA,” Mustafi said. “You should never relax otherwise you can crash out of the tournament. We shouldn’t repeat these mistakes.”

CSKA face a monumental task to flip the tie in their favour against a team coach Viktor Gancharenko called one of the favourites for the Europa League title.

“If you play without faith, nothing will happen,” Gancharenko said. “We should come onto the pitch (Thursday) with a belief that we can change the situation.

“We also need to make some tactical changes but there’s no guarantee that our play will become much better.”

Arsenal’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who hurt his knee in the first leg, is out injured but Gancharenko knows his absence won’t lessen the size of the challenge that stands in front of CSKA.

“Arsenal have a big number of players. They can substitute Mkhitaryan with a very skilled player though it’s very hard to make a worthy replacement,” he said.

“But anyway it will not make our task easier. Arsenal and Atletico (Madrid) are the main Europa League favourites.”

Bayern progressed to the last four of the competition for the seventh time in nine seasons as they prevailed 2-1 on aggregate following their first-leg victory in Spain last week.

“Sevilla are a good team – for a long time we couldn’t get a grip on the midfield, but we stopped them scoring – that was important,” said Bayern winger Arjen Robben.

Sevilla’s bid for a first semi-final appearance fell short in spite of shutting out Bayern’s attack and restricting the hosts to just 51 percent possession.

“I’m proud of my team, they showed great personality and character against a very strong opponent, it wasn’t easy,” said Sevilla boss Vincenzo Montella.

“We can be proud of what we’ve done here, and all throughout this Champions League.”

The Spaniards’ defence constantly thwarted Robert Lewandowski, who was unable to add to his 35 goals this season, although Bayern had twice as many shots on goal.

Sevilla finished a man down after Joaquin Correa, who had earlier hit the crossbar, was sent off in the closing stages for a clumsy foul on Javi Martinez.

After Barcelona and Manchester City — the runaway leaders in Spain and England respectively — crashed out on Tuesday, Bayern are the only team left in Europe who can still win the treble.

They wrapped up a sixth straight Bundesliga title last Saturday and are into the semi-finals of the German Cup.

– Rough treatment for Lewandowski –

Lewandowski endured a bruising night and Sevilla centre-back Gabriel Mercado was booked after just two minutes for bringing down the Poland international just outside the area.

The Bayern striker then forced Sevilla goalkeeper David Soria to palm over the bar on seven minutes.

Sevilla, needing to score at least two goals, started pushing forward themselves as Pablo Sarabia fired wide on a rare forage behind the Bayern defence.

Franck Ribery wasted the best chance of the first half when he created space inside the area on 37 minutes only to fire straight at Soria, who punched away the Frenchman’s powerful drive.

At the other end, Rafinha’s perfectly-timed tackle denied Sarabia, who was through on goal and shaping to shoot.

Bayern again struggled to kill off Sevilla after the interval with Lewandowski nodding agonisingly wide from a deep Ribery cross.

Soria produced another good save with his foot to block from James Rodriguez at his near post.

Sevilla’s best chance came just shy of the hour mark when Argentine winger Correa hit the woodwork after connecting with a Jesus Navas free-kick, the ball bouncing to safety with Sven Ulreich well beaten.

Robben then cut back inside with a trademark run that resulted in James’ shot being comfortably saved by Soria, as Bayern’s frustration at their inability to put Sevilla to bed grew.

Lewandowski was replaced by Sandro Wagner on 77 minutes, the former departing sporting a plaster on his left cheek after several battering tussles with the Sevilla defence.

Tempers flared late on when Correa was dismissed for clattering Martinez just before the final whistle.

Bayern will learn their semi-final fate at Friday’s  draw in Switzerland featuring defending champions Real Madrid, Liverpool and Roma.

 Buffon’s anger earned him a red card from English referee Michael Oliver, moments before Ronaldo slammed a 97th-minute penalty into the top corner to send Real into the semi-finals.

Oliver’s decision was not as poor as Buffon claimed. Mehdi Benatia’s challenge on Lucas Vazquez had been clumsy, from behind and a desperate attempt to stop the Spaniard finishing from five yards.

But Juve had made the impossible possible, having cancelled out a 3-0 deficit from the first leg, to lead by the same scoreline at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Buffon, who has racked up 125 Champions League appearances but never won the competition, could not contain his frustration as Ronaldo’s goal made the aggregate score 4-3.

“This referee has no heart, he has a garbage bag instead of a heart,” Buffon told Italian channel Mediaset Premium after the match.

“If you do not have personality and courage, you should go to the stands to watch the match with your wife and a Sprite.”

Benatia controversially likened the penalty decision to being “raped”.

Amidst the swarm of Juventus players surrounding Oliver, and Buffon at the front of them, Ronaldo kept his cool. This was a record-strecthing 11th consecutive Champions League game in which he has scored.

“I do not understand why they protest against the penalty,” Ronaldo told beIN Sports.

“If he did not commit the foul, Lucas would have scored. During the game, Benatia and the rest of them had already been kicking us from behind. But we are happy and we are in the semi-finals.”

Real coach Zinedine Zidane was more sympathetic towards Buffon.

“He did not deserve that,” Zidane said. “But we cannot change it. It will not take away everything he has done, even if it’s a shame to end his Champions League career this way.”

Mario Mandzukic set Juve on their way with a goal after 76 seconds — the fastest Real have ever conceded in this competition — and then scored again before half-time with another header at the back post.

When Keylor Navas fumbled Douglas Costa’s cross on the hour, allowing Blaise Matuidi to stab home, Juve were on the cusp of ensuring there would be no Spanish representative in the last four.

But Oliver blew, Buffon exploded and Ronaldo hit the net.

“It leaves a bitter taste,” Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said.

“Because we have not had the chance to take the game to extra-time. In view of the two legs both teams would have deserved to move on to the next phase.”

Real, meanwhile, edge one step closer to claiming an unprecedented third consecutive Champions League triumph, a fourth in five years.

They join Bayern Munich, who knocked out Sevilla, Liverpool and Roma in Friday’s semi-final draw.

“What I did not expect is in minute one to score a goal,” Zidane said. “By conceding the goal after a minute, you drop your head and give them life. Then they played a good game — they were good and we were bad.”

Gareth Bale perhaps paid the heaviest price. Bale had been handed his first Champions League start since September by Zidane but the Welshman was hauled off at half-time, with his team 2-0 down. Casemiro also made way as Marco Asensio and Vazquez came on.

“Something had to change,” Zidane said. “I was not happy with the approach, it was not to punish Gareth or Casemiro. ”

“We have changed a little more the dynamics, with Lucas and Marco giving us a little more energy. We had to do it.”

The Thai star received 36 per cent of the votes from the fans to earn the accolade for March, ahead of Sweden’s Alex Noren who polled 33 per cent.

Kiradech  finished tied fifth at the WGC-Mexico Championship on 13 under par – three shots behind winner Phil Mickelson. Three weeks later, at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, the 28 year old dominated his group with three victories; beating Chez Reavie 3 and 2, defeating Keegan Bradley by one hole and clinching a 4 and 3 victory versus Jon Rahm.

He progressed to the quarter final stage with a one hole win over Charles Howell III but could not defeat eventual WGC-Dell Technologies winner Bubba Watson, as the American beat him 5 and 3.

Sweden’s Noren was runner-up for the March award after finishing third at the Dell Technologies Match Play. Matt Wallace came third with 18 per cent following his victory at the Hero Indian Open, while South African George Coetzee earned 13 per cent after he won the first tournament of March at Tshwane Open in South Africa.

By casting their vote to decide who should be crowned the Hilton Golfer of the Month fans are automatically entered into a fantastic prize draw, with one lucky winner claiming win a two-night stay at any Hilton hotel, anywhere in the world.

As the latest recipient of the monthly award ,Kiradech will receive an automatic upgrade to Hilton Honors Diamond Status, Hilton’s award-winning loyalty program.

Hilton is the Official Sponsor of the Hilton Golfer of the Month award, which recognises and rewards the best performances of European Tour members each month.

Don’t believe it?

Ask Jordi Diaz, a researcher at the Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera in Barcelona. He’s got the hard proof.

“We put a seismometer inside a building in Barcelona,” he explained at a geosciences conference in Vienna, where he presented his findings.

“This allowed us to identify signature vibrations produced by different activities, including traffic or subway trains.”

Or football matches.

By design or not, the instrument — which measures everything from tremors to full-on quakes — was about half a kilometre from Nou Camp stadium, home to the city’s fabled football team.

“We get information every time there is a goal,” he told journalists at a press conference.

“Well,” he corrected himself, “every time Barcelona makes a goal. People jump, and the stadium shakes.”

Exhibit A: a graphic display of the Champions League knockout tie last month versus English team Chelsea that saw Messi score twice in a 3-0 Barca victory.

The inky spike provoked by his first goal, after three minutes of play, looked like the lie detector answer when the murderer swears he didn’t do it.

The second goal — an hour later when the game was largely won — didn’t provoke the same level of vertical enthusiasm.

– Dancing, not jumping –

The historic, come-from-behind, 6-1 victory against Paris Saint Germain last year, which put Barcelona into the Champions League quarter finals, looked like a crescendo of earthquakes ending in the Big One.

But a football game is not — seismically speaking — the same as a concert.

“Sometimes we have beautiful seismic recordings from rock concerts, particularly Bruce Springsteen or U2,” he said.

“You see what we call ‘harmonic structures’, energy localised in a precise amplitudes,” he explained.

“This is because people are not jumping, they are dancing.”

He recalled a Springsteen concert from last year in which “every single song had a particular pattern.”

Marathon races, wind bursts, ocean waves — each has its own seismic signature, he said.

Why bother?

“At first, it was mainly for outreach, to show people how a seismometer works,” he conceded.

But then other applications came into focus.

The technique, for example, could be an easy, inexpensive way to do long-term survey of traffic or subway activity.

And it could be handy as evidence that transport workers have gone on strike, he added.

Guardiola was forced to watch the second half from the stands after being sent off for his protestations at the break as free-spending City’s dreams of conquering the Champions League for the first time were dashed for another season.

City led 1-0 on the night at that stage after Gabriel Jesus’s second-minute opener, but the hosts felt aggrieved after Leroy Sane had a second goal wrongly disallowed for offside just before half-time.

“It’s different to go in 1-0 at half-time to 2-0,” said Guardiola, who also believed Liverpool’s opener in a 3-0 first-leg win at Anfield last week should have been ruled out for offside.

“When the teams are so equal the impact of these decisions is so big.”

Mohamaed Salah booked Liverpool’s place in the last four for the first time in a decade when he coolly chipped home his 39th goal of the season 11 minutes into the second half before Roberto Firmino inflicted a third consecutive defeat on City for the first time in Guardiola’s near two-year reign.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp hailed the maturity of his side to see out a first-half onslaught.

“The boys found a solution. We had these two or three moments already at end of the first half so it was easy for me and the boys to see the development of the game and that we are already through the whirlwind,” said Klopp.

Liverpool trail City by 17 points in the Premier League, but have now beaten Guardiola’s men in three of their four meetings this season.

“I really think they are the best team in the world at the moment but I knew we could beat them,” added Klopp.

“We should enjoy the moment. It was a while ago Liverpool was in the semis and I was in the semis and now we are there together.”

– Perfect start –

Guardiola admitted beforehand that his side needed the “perfect” performance and the hosts got the perfect start as they opened the scoring after just 117 seconds.

Liverpool were unhappy at Mateu Lahoz in what was to be the start of a controversial night for the Spaniard when Virgil van Dijk claimed he had been pushed by Raheem Sterling in the lead-up to the goal.

The referee was unmoved, though, and with the Dutchman out of position, Fernandinho’s through ball found Sterling and his low cross was swept home by Jesus.

Salah had been an injury doubt after limping off in the first leg, but Liverpool were unable to spring the Egyptian free in the first 45 minutes as City peppered the visitors’ box with crosses without finding the final touch.

Bernardo Silva saw a deflected effort spin just wide and then rattled the post with a deflected long-range strike.

“The first half was so good,” added Guardiola. “(We) hit the post from Bernardo, but when you arrive you have to try to sore the second goal.”

The turning point came seconds later when Sane turned into an empty net after Loris Karius’s punch came back off his own player James Milner.

Guardiola ran onto the field at half-time to pull his protesting players away from the official before embarking on his own rant at Mateu Lahoz that saw him watch the second half from the stands.

City understandably failed to maintain the intensity of their first-half display and Salah got the decisive goal when he followed up after Ederson had denied Sadio Mane with a wonderfully-judged chipped finish past the despairing Nicolas Otamendi in the 56th minute.

City’s terrible week after also blowing the chance to seal the Premier League title against local rivals Manchester United at the weekend was rounded off 13 minutes from time when Otamendi was caught in possession and Firmino slotted in off the far post.