Iraola ‘liked’ Liverpool display ‘a lot’ as Maresca reacts to Man City victory at Anfield
Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola was encouraged by his side’s performance in their 3-0 loss to Man City, while Enzo Maresca was pleased to come through a “difficult environment”.
Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki scored the goals as the Citizens put the Reds to the sword and maintain their perfect start to the season.
It was an even match until the 62nd minute when Ryan Gravenberch was shown a second yellow card to reduce Liverpool to ten men against the Premier League leaders.
Man City then scored three goals in 13 minutes to take the match away from Liverpool – but Iraola was still pleased by what he saw for most of the game.
Speaking to BBC Sport, Iraola said: “I think the first part is that we played two different games. One until the red card, and then after. For 60 minutes, the players were very good. The second game from the red card was where City were better than us.”
On Gravenberch’s red card, Iraola added: “The first yellow card was just a kick in the toe. It was nothing. It was a normal foul.
READ: Carragher slams Liverpool star who was ‘all over the place’ in loss to Man City
“It was the moment when we were pushing more. The momentum was coming for us and the atmosphere in the stadium was so nice.
“We conceded very little in the first half. We did a really good job. The second half, we were translating into chances.
“You learn a lot in games like today. I am very proud of my players. They put the work rate and everything in today. It’s a loss and we didn’t get anything from the performance but I liked it a lot.”
On injured players coming back for Champions League, Iraola continued: “It’ll be difficult because it’s two days. You never know.”
Maresca: ‘We need to learn how to deal with the noise’
Speaking to Sky Sports, Maresca gave his view on the match: “Very difficult circumstances, difficult environment. We struggled first half, we were on the ball but not so much off the ball. Second half we made some adjustments and we were much better. In the build-up we were not doing the right things, second half we were better.”
READ: Liverpool 0-3 Man City: Pundits address game’s ‘big moment’ as Doku changes everything
On the Anfield atmosphere, Maresca added: “We need to learn how to deal with the noise because the noise will be with us at all of our away games – there will be noise. We need to deal with that and make our noise. Our noise is to win games. The feeling at the end of the game with our fans and our noise, that’s a nice feeling and a different noise.”
When asked if it was a more intense atmosphere than usual, the Man City boss replied: “I don’t know exactly, I came here with City once before in the Treble season. It was nice to play this kind of game for the noise, the environment. We need to make our noise and deal with their noise.”
On whether off-field issues can galvanise the team, Maresca continued: “Probably yes, probably no. I don’t know. It can create togetherness with the fans. I said during the week bring the passion, bring the noise and hopefully we can celebrate a win. This is the only thing we can focus on.”
READ NEXT: Manchester City can’t ‘do their talking on the pitch’ and that’s the whole point
