Head coach Steve Cooper was left to reflect on a case of what might have been for Nottingham Forest against Liverpool in the FA Cup.
The Reds went toe-to-toe with the Premier League heavyweights at the City Ground, giving them a good game in a gripping quarter-final tie. But not making the most of some positive openings proved costly as they lost out to a Diogo Jota goal.
Philip Zinckernagel missed Forest’s best chance, firing wide from a Brennan Johnson cross. And the visitors immediately went down the other end after that, grabbing what proved to be the winner.
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Cooper, though, says his team will take much belief from their cup run as they chase a top-six Championship finish. Prior to coming up against Jurgen Klopp’s side, they had already knocked out Arsenal, Leicester City and Huddersfield Town.
“It was a narrow victory. The game was decided on a defining two minutes, where we had a really good chance and didn’t take it. And then they created one, and did,” Cooper said.
“They are brilliant. We saw it in the build-up, and we saw it in the game. That’s why they are the team they are.
“We didn’t have the ball as much as we would like or as much as we normally do. But on the whole, I thought we handled that pretty well.
“We just wanted to create moments that we had to take. And we did.
“I did think in the first half that we could have been braver with the ball. I showed them some images at half-time of us, saying we are a better team than that and are capable of playing out from certain situations.
“We did that second half. If someone had said at half-time that you’d create the chances we did, we would have taken it.
“But it’s an overall feeling of what might have been, rather than what actually happened. The overriding feeling at the moment is one of disappointment, because we haven’t won. But we have used the cup to our advantage.”
