Ordinarily across recent decades City would have come away from Liverpool delighted with a point. But not these days. Here’s how the two gaffers saw City’s sixth consecutive league draw…
Rafa Benitez:
Liverpool’s beleaguered manager was defiant and pointed to his squad’s injury woes in explaining away the result:
‘We will finish in the top four when we get our injured players back. We had a shocking day with injuries. Glen was not happy with his calf and he had been limping a bit in training.
‘We felt we could hang on, then they scored twice and we had to show great character to hit back at them to get the equaliser. We then had a couple of great chances at the end and could have won the game. You cannot be happy with a home draw, but to lose three players from your game plan is very difficult. And of course we had three players on the bench who have been for treatment in Belgrade and had not been training with the team.
‘It is not easy to manage, but the reaction of the players was fantastic. You cannot ask for more from players in such a position. City have quality. But if we can improve and play at our top level, we will be in the top four.’
Mark Hughes:
City’s manager was clearly disappointed at The Blues’ latest failure to kill a side off from a winning position:
‘We restricted Liverpool to a very few opportunities but the ones they did have, they scored from. But we restricted their influential players from having an impact on the game. We were good on the break and carried a real threat in the second period when Carlos Tevez came on.
‘We had to chase the game, and Carlos gave us a real energy. We retained possession and got back from one-down to take the lead.
We had another winning position and let it slip. We were caught straight after we had scored and had several chances to clear the ball before Benayoun put it away.
‘My players are disappointed, they had an opportunity to win. Scoring twice and getting a point at Anfield is something you would normally be happy with. Maybe we will be come the end of the season, but at the moment it feels like a chance missed.’
‘Liverpool will be happy with a point, on the day they were not the better team so they should be happy with a draw. If you do not make too much of a positive impact on the game you feel happy with a point. I felt we merited more, given our second-half performance.’
VMC City Video Link: Mark Hughes: Anfield Verdict
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