Jurgen Klopp insists his side are braced for Manchester City duel at Wembley

Liverpool and Manchester City will go head-to-head twice in six defining days after they were paired in the FA Cup semi-finals.

Pep Guardiola’s side reached the last four by beating Southampton 4-1 at St Mary’s and their bitter rivals set up a date at Wembley on April 16 with a hard-fought 1-0 victory at Nottingham Forest, courtesy of a late Diogo Jota goal.

The two teams, who are vying for the Premier League title, were already set to meet at the Etihad Stadium on April 10, but this fixture adds another dramatic twist to the plot and Jurgen Klopp believes the opportunity should be embraced.

He said: ‘City don’t like it too much, we don’t like that too much. But the closer it gets to the end, the more likely that you will face City. If you don’t face them earlier, you will face them in any kind of semi-final or final.

‘That’s normal. The same with Chelsea, pretty much. You don’t want to play against them every week because they are really strong as well.

‘I don’t think it is a pure joy to play us and that’s what we should not forget.’

He added: ‘Now we know, the further you go in every cup competition, the more likely it is that you will face City at one point, and they will face us at one point. I don’t think we are the dream draw for anybody, but it will be a tough one and we have to make sure it will be tough for City as well.

Liverpool beat Nottingham Forest to secure a place in the FA Cup semi-finals (above)

Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola’s side reached the last four of the FA Cup by beating Southampton

‘There are a lot of games to play before then — Benfica, City, Benfica (again), City (again), Manchester United and Everton.’ The draw for the semi-finals was made at 5.30pm and Liverpool knew that City would lie in wait should they get past Forest — other clash is between Chelsea and Crystal Palace, who beat Everton 4-0 at Selhurst Park — but that outcome was in the balance for a long time.

Forest were excellent and created a number of fine chances in the second half before Jota popped with his 19th goal in all competitions and showed why Klopp has put so much faith in the Portugal forward. ‘What a boy he is, hey?’ said Klopp.

Jota looked like he might be offside in the build-up to his goal but Forest boss Steve Cooper had no complaints about the incident and nor did he bemoan VAR’s lack of intervention when Ryan Yates went down in the area after goalkeeper Alisson Becker had rushed out.

As a result, the two Premier League sides will meet at Wembley next month

The German manager believes that his Liverpool are a difficult team to play against

‘It’s the first time we’ve experienced it (VAR) here and you have to trust the process,’ said Cooper.

‘I think it was tight with the goal because they had VAR look at the offside. Yatesy (Ryan Yates) is one of the most honest of players, too honest, so the feeling was there was no way he would go down — plus could he go on and score?

‘It was just one of those things. I’m not going to talk about VAR, or what could have been in the game. On the whole, I thought we handled them pretty well and couldn’t make the most of the moments we created.’