Rafael Benitez reflected on his side's 1-1 draw in their opening Champions League clash against Porto and admitted: "We have no complaints with the result."
Dirk Kuyt's close range header rescued a point for the Reds after Porto had taken advantage of their lively start with a penalty from Lucho Gonzalez on eight minutes.
Benitez - who saw Jermaine Pennant sent off in the second period - accepted his side were well below par in the early stages of the match, but he was pleased with the way they fought back to rescue a hard earned point.
"We were really very bad in that first-half, there are no excuses," he said. "It is hard to explain why because our build-up and preperation had been good.
"It was easier to do the right things in the second period, but the damage had been done. We gave the ball away far too easily, we conceded clear chances and gave away a penalty that was also a correct decision.
"We needed to show real character and that is what we achieved. We were more organised in the second half, there was an excellent work rate and there were positives to be drawn from the performance after the break.
"We were playing against a good side and we have no complaints about the result."
Benitez also had no qualms over the red card shown to Pennant, who was dismissed for two bookable offences.
"I have no complaints about the decision. It was correct. "Hopefully Jermaine will learn from this experience. Maybe it will produce something positive for the future, the tackle in that position was just not needed.
"It is difficult to understand why he did it, we had talked to him about staying on his feet and not making rash challenges. We were even talking on the bench about taking him off, but we just did not get the time to do it." |