Sparta Prague boss Brian Priske is adamant his team were right not to “park the bus” and vowed to do exactly the same at Anfield next week.
Sparta created a number of chances in the first half but only found the scoresheet when Reds substitute Conor Bradley put through his own goal
Despite Liverpool having equalled Sparta’s heaviest-ever home defeat in European competition, Priske was delighted with the attitude of his players.
Priske
"We are disappointed with the result and the goals we conceded,”
“We had some good moments and we tried to play our football like we normally do and we created enough chances to score more than one goal. But the quality we faced was really good.
“I told the players it’s my responsibility to set up the structure of the game and I’m proud the way the guys did their job.
"The easy thing would have been to park the bus in front of our goal and just defend but that’s not my style or our style as a club or team.
"I knew what I asked of them could be challenging but they stayed loyal to it.
“They did a good job in many situations and created big chances against one of the best teams in Europe.
"But individually we made two big mistakes leading to their goals and we got punished with the quality Liverpool have.”
Priske added:
"I knew our boys would be tested with decisions they’ve never had to take before because the opponent has this quality.
"We saw the gap from the Czech champions to the number one team in England at the moment.
“We can compete against good teams in Europe and have already proven this.
"But we have to give credit and respect to Liverpool, they were a couple of levels more than we have played before in Europe this season.
“When it comes to Darwin Nunez, he is a guy with a lot of quality, that’s why he plays for Liverpool.
"They have a lot of players with high quality. They took the game really, really seriously. They have a top performance coming here with full power.”
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