Arne Slot admitted his Liverpool side “lacked fighting spirit” during key moments of their 4-0 FA Cup quarter-final loss to Manchester City which has piled more pressure on the Reds boss.
All the goals came in an 18-minute period either side of the break as Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick and Antoine Semenyo added the other for City, who made it to an eighth consecutive FA Cup semi-final.
On the flip side, a miserable afternoon for Liverpool was summed up by Mohamed Salah’s penalty miss at 4-0 down.
Liverpool must quickly pick themselves up before Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg away to Paris St Germain, their last chance of silverware in a disappointing campaign, but there were worrying signs in Manchester.
“The result speaks for itself,” Slot said. “It’s unbelievably disappointing. Losing is already disappointing but 4-0 in a quarter-final of the FA Cup against a team Liverpool played so many times against, of course it’s a big disappointment.
“The 20 minutes where we conceded four goals were not of our standard.”
Liverpool had started brightly with fine chances for Salah and Hugo Ekitike, but once Haaland opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 39th minute, then heading in a second in first-half stoppage time, there was only one likely outcome.
Sure enough, Semenyo added a third in the 50th minute and Haaland completed his hat-trick seven minutes later.
“I missed the fighting spirit in the first 10 minutes after half-time,” Slot said. “After it was a game where both sides accepted it was 4-0, but in that 10, 15 minutes we missed the fighting spirit, the willingness to win our duels or to make it difficult to pass, to cross, to finish.
“That is something we definitively have to do better on Wednesday.”
Pep Guardiola has never lost an FA Cup home tie and the Catalan, serving a touchline ban, will have enjoyed the view from the stand as City booked yet another trip to Wembley two weeks after lifting the Carabao Cup.
“It’s special,” Guardiola’s assistant Pep Lijnders said. “It’s a sign of consistency and quality that the team reaches every year.
“The FA Cup is so, so special, we all know this. But especially for the fans having the chance to travel again and have a nice day with the family, the kids, all the passion around it.
“It’s a special place, Wembley, and you should not take for granted every time a final or semi-final and for sure we don’t do that.”
Haaland had scored only once since the 3-0 win over Fulham on February 11, but was in deadly form here, sending Giorgi Mamardashvili the wrong way from the spot after Nico O’Reilly was fouled, then heading in Semenyo’s cross for a second and crashing in a shot off the crossbar for his hat-trick.
“I’ve worked with a lot of good strikers who have scored a lot of goals, reached a lot of finals and won a lot of trophies,” Lijnders said.
“For Erling it was his 12th hat-trick today for Manchester City. The second goal was insane, the way he flies and still puts the ball to the corner. I love these old-school striker goals. I love it.”
