Jason McAteer has indicated that Liverpool did not expect the strong response from Sevilla in the second half in their 3-3 Champions League draw in Spain.
Liverpool went into half time with a three-goal lead courtesy of strikes from Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane but Sevilla looked a different beast after half time.
Wissam Ben Yedder scored two before the hour mark to set the cat amongst the pigeons for Liverpool and Guido Pizarro bagged a stoppage time goal to snatch a point for Sevilla from an almost losing position.
McAteer admits that it wouldn’t have been unnatural for some of the Liverpool players to feel that the game was done and dusted at half time but stressed that they should have expected the response from Sevilla and withstood the pressure.
He conceded that once Sevilla scored early after the break, it was a back to the wall job for Liverpool in order to keep the Spanish tide from running them over in the second half.
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McAteer told LFC TV: “I would love to know what was being said in the dressing at half time.
“I have been in dressing rooms when you go in at 3-0 and you think it’s over sometimes.
“In the second half you think it will be easy, we can pass it around and enjoy it and it’s not like that in European football.
“They were always going to throw the kitchen sink at Liverpool.
"The crowd demanded it, the Argentinian manager – you just knew there was going to be fireworks in the dressing room at half time. He would have thrown the kitchen sink at Liverpool.”
He continued: “I would love to know what was said in the Liverpool dressing room because you got to be prepared for the ball to be thrown inside the box, you've got to head everything, you've got to win second balls and silence the crowd again.
“I said if they scored first in the second half, the crowd would be up again and it would be back to the wall again and they gave away a stupid penalty for the second goal.”
