Manchester City winger Riyad Mahrez praised the Blues' mentality following the Carabao Cup Round of 16 victory over Liverpool on Thursday night.
Pep Guardiola's side progressed in the competition with a 3-2 win over Jurgen Klopp's men, with Erling Haaland, Riyad Mahrez and Nathan Ake all getting on the scoresheet for the home side.
Liverpool levelled proceedings on two occasions at the Etihad, but the Blues took the lead for the third and final time in the 58th minute and were able to see the remainder of the tie out.
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Mahrez, who was one of few City players not in action at the World Cup in Qatar, was keen to praise his teammates for the mentality they showed after more than a month without competitive action.
"Everyone came back with a good mentality and ready to start again," Mahrez told Sky Sports. "It was a tough opponent to start with but we’ve done the job and we were especially, second half, and after the third goal we kept a very good, we were very good defensively and stopped them to score a third goal so we’re happy."
Discussing his goal against the Merseyside outfit, the 31-year-old added: "It is always good to score and help the team to win. I think overall we were very good and we deserved the win."
Ake also lauded the fighting performance of the Blues against Liverpool, suggesting that it was promising to see the pace that the Blues operated at in the Carabao Cup clash.
"We didn’t have too much training so it was tough in the end, a little bit of cramp here and there, but no, everyone fought well and it was good to see players like Riyad who’ve been off for a little while and coming in with the pace they had, it was good to see," the Dutchman said.
City, who have won the competition in four of the last five seasons, will face off against Southampton in the next round of the competition following the victory over Klopp's side.
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