He said: "I think that the sending off was clear and so was the penalty. But you cannot change things after the game. We must be pleased with the result. It could have been different if we had scored early because it was 10 versus 11. If they had needed to go forward, maybe we would have found more spaces."
"I think the referee got both the yellow card decisions wrong," he said.
"Neither were worthy of cautions, and the sending-off changed the game.
"I was not surprised by this performance from Liverpool; I knew they would put in a good performance after what happened at the weekend, because they are a good side.
"But Marco's sending-off changed things dramatically. It is hard enough to play at Anfield with 11 men, but with 10 it is very tough.
"But I will not concede that the task is now beyond us. We have another 90 minutes on our own ground, although the second goal they scored has made it all a lot harder.
"But it is not out of our reach. I accept that Steven Gerrard played well, but that only happened after Marco was sent off. It was only then that Gerrard got so much space to use."
