A last gasp header last night from Christian Benteke denied Chelsea three-points at Anfield and made sure that Liverpool closed out their last match of the season on Merseyside in dramatic fashion. Late goals and never say die performances have become a hallmark of the Reds game under Jurgen Klopp — something that vice-captain James Milner wants to build on.
“The manager said it earlier on in the season, [it’s about] giving the fans performances to believe in and, when we are losing late in games, making them believe that we’ll get a goal and get back in the game,” said the 30-year old, hinting back to the loss to Crystal Palace back in November that saw Anfield empty en masse well before the final whistle. “We can make this a fortress and our performances will ultimately do that, and if we’re doing the business on the field [the fans] will get right behind us and create an amazing atmosphere,” continued Milner. “If we can make this a horrible place to play, ourselves and the fans, it’s a massive plus to [help] win our games at home.”
The draw with Chelsea meant that Liverpool have now gone 12-matches unbeaten on home soil. With the Reds unlikely to secure European football through a league spot, the result wasn’t all that important, but considering it was the last match of the season at Anfield, it was nice to close out the campaign on a high note.
“We’re disappointed not to win, we wanted to win the game,” conceded Milner, hoping to give the fans something to celebrate at the final whistle. “They’re obviously a good team [but] we know we can play better than we did. We showed in patches what we can do but I think we were maybe a yard or two off it tonight for whatever reason. It’s disappointing but we’ve shown that character again to keep going to the end to get a point,” he continued, looking for positives. “We showed nice touches at times but maybe didn’t put together a complete performance like we’d like – but we kept going and managed to get a point against a good team.”
