ReactionJordan Henderson: We're still in the race

A point still separates the championship rivals after they played out an exhilarating 2-2 draw at Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The Reds came from behind twice in Manchester as Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane netted to equalise goals by Kevin De Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus.

Both teams have seven fixtures remaining in the league season and Henderson called on Liverpool to be ready for any error in the run-in by City.

Read the captain’s post-match interview with Sky Sports below…

On a ‘thunderous’ contest between the sides…

Yeah, it was an intense game, which we knew it would be. We knew it would be tough coming here, a fantastic team, but we wanted to come here and give it everything and try to get the win. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do that, but at the same time we didn’t lose the game. Of course we wanted to do better, but it’s not the end of the world, we’re still in the race. So, yeah, positives and negatives.

On Liverpool’s start in the first half…

I think we started OK but we were a little bit hectic at times. I can remember defending and trying to clear it rather than trying to get it down and playing, it gave them one or two chances early on, which is why I think they got the goal. We knew we were going to come under pressure early on, they’re a fantastic team and we knew they’d come out fast. But after they scored I felt as though we settled it down a little bit and started playing football more and I think that caused them one or two problems. Then we ended up getting the goal from that. So that was pleasing, how we’ve come back twice from being behind, it shows a lot of character to do that here. But we want to do better with the [conceded] goals, of course.

On whether it was a ‘gutsy’ second-half performance from the Reds…

Yeah, you’ve got to keep going. You’ve got to be prepared to suffer at times. They’re so good with the ball and make so many chances that you’ve got to stay positive, you can’t become negative. You’ve got to try to stay on the front foot, try to keep pressing them and not give them too much time to pick their passes out. We tried to do that as best we could; it worked at times and we got our goals from that, but at other times I think we can defend a little bit better, especially on the goals.

On if the draw is a better result for City than Liverpool…

Well, we’ll have to wait and see, I suppose. They don’t drop many points, of course, we know that. But, for us, we’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves and keep trying to win as many games as possible. And if they do slip up, we’ve got to be there right behind them. We’ve got to continue with that, there’s still a lot of football to play. So it’s not the end of the world, we stay positive and keep going right until the end.