Luis Diaz starred for Bayern Munich across both legs of their Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid(Image: Europa Press via Getty Images)
Luis Diaz is back in the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in four years – nine months after leaving Liverpool for Bayern Munich. The forward fired his new employers past Real Madrid with an 89th-minute goal to give them the edge on aggregate.
Diaz, 29, has now scored 24 times in his 42 appearances across all competitions and also has 15 assists. Six of those strikes have come during their Champions League campaign, the same amount as he managed for the Reds in Europe.
The sight of Diaz scoring late on for Bayern cruelly came 24 hours after seeing Liverpool failed to score in 180 minutes against Paris-Saint Germain over two legs of their own quarter-final.
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Approaching a year after cashing in on the Colombia international, the Reds finished Tuesday's match with just one of the three players they sacrificed Diaz to sign still on the pitch. Hugo Ekitike had to go off on a stretcher after half an hour, with Alexander Isak withdrawn at half-time, meaning only Florian Wirtz played the full 90 minutes.
The Reds deemed £66million for a player turning 29 this summer too good to turn down, and, combined with the fee for selling Darwin Nunez, refreshed their forward line with Ekitike, Isak and Wirtz. However, injury has meant they have all barely played together.
Arne Slot lamented that after Tuesday's match. He told Amazon Prime: "Eighty-eight minutes until tonight we could play Florian, Alex and Hugo, and we added 27 or 28 to that, and I'd be surprised if we could add any more to that this season."
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Liverpool's head coach was at pains to point out Isak's injury when asked earlier this year about Diaz's absence. Slot said back in February: "You always miss good football players.
"He was so important for us last season, but he wasn't the only one. There were more players who were influential in our results.
"But I think we have replaced them with very good players as well. It is maybe more fair to say that if Alex had been fit, would we have spoken about it then as well?"
He added: "Luis Diaz is another example of how this club is run. If this club gets an offer like that for a 28-year-old, then this club, because it is built on sustainability, chooses to sell a player, and we are an exception in the Premier League, especially at the top of the Premier League, for that.
"That is why it is also so nice that we can achieve the things we have achieved in the last few years with that model. He is doing very well at Bayern, and that is not a surprise to me."
Steven Gerrard, however, is adamant that his former club misses Diaz. He said on TNT Sports after the quarter-final first leg: "Oh yeah, we do, we miss him a lot."
But that will not stop Liverpool from sticking to their transfer policy this summer. Slot told Amazon Prime after the PSG tie: "Much has been said that the club is in a transition. The club has sold eight or 10 players to make money to sign five or so very talented players; we have to sell to buy.
"We are losing some players on a free transfer; it is a big challenge in the summer, but the club has shown that this model works. As I said many times, the future looks very good, especially if we can sign players after good players leave this summer."