15/04/2021
James Milner namechecked Nat Phillips as Liverpool's standout performer against Real Madrid - but criticised his side for failing to take their chances at Anfield.
He said: “I thought the performance was good, the intensity and desire was good.
We won the ball back well, pressed pretty well, but we cannot not take the chances that we had tonight. We had more than enough chances to do what we needed to do and we didn’t take them - that was the difference unfortunately.
I think the positives are that we’re creating them especially against a team like this and the reaction we showed after the first-leg.
We have done enough tonight to go through, I believe that, with the chances we had, we were the better team.
Ali made a good save as well which you’re going to expect. We did enough to win the game but if you don’t take your chances, you only need the first one because that changes the game.
We wanted to press the box and make sure they had no time on the ball. Set that tempo and intensity, I think that carried on throughout the game, but sometimes with a few of the substitutions, you can lose your way a little bit as the guys get into the game, but we had chances once the boys came on.
It’s disappointing, a disappointing way to end because if we played the first-leg with that same intensity then I’m sure it could have been a different story.”
Before Milner continued: “It was a good effort tonight, I thought there were some outstanding performances, Nat Phillips was absolutely fantastic at the back.
It’s disappointing because we did everything we wanted to do except get the two goals which is obviously the most important thing.”