Virgil van Dijk admitted that Liverpool had let Aston Villa off the hook as their desperate second-half fightback just fell short.
The Reds’ skipper referenced Darwin Nunez’s shocking miss from just six yards as he reflected on a hard-fought point from an entertaining tussle at Villa Park.
The big Uruguayan managed to clip the ball over the bar with the goal gaping – reviving memories of another dreadful gaffe from over three decades ago in this fixture when Ronnie Rosenthal somehow clattered an effort into the crossbar with the net at his mercy.
Liverpool had been gifted an early opener when Mo Salah broke the deadlock on the half-hour only for Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins to give Unai Emery ’s side the lead at the interval.
Trent Alexander-Arnold ’s deflected effort levelled matters but Nunez’s frustrating inconsistency in front of goal resurfaced as the visitors chased the winner.
Van Dijk said: “We are a bit disappointed but we fight. We had chances to win the game, took a bit of a risk at the end – so it got more open at times.
“In possession we did quite well, created good opportunities to score the second. Disappointing to concede from a set-piece. We tried everything and unfortunately it wasn’t enough for three points
“We should have scored 3-2, but credit to Aston Villa, they made it very difficult. We have a very tough one on the weekend again, then we play Newcastle, our focus now will be on Man City, a very difficult game, we know that.
“We have done everything in our power to win games – and the focus will be that on Sunday.”
Villa striker Watkins said that his boss Unai Emery will be pleased with a point against a team he has yet to beat since being installed at Villa Park.
He said: “It was a tough game. They are at the top of the league for a reason. We have a strong record here and always make it hard for teams. Even though we went behind we reacted well and could have nicked it at the end.
“Unai Emery is really demanding of us and we haven’t been performing as well of late so he will be happy with that.”
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