Norwich City are out of the FA Cup
The Canaries suffered a 2-1 defeat at Liverpool
Last updated 3rd Mar 2022
Norwich City are out of the FA Cup after suffering a 2-1 defeat to Liverpool in the fifth round.
Boss Dean Smith said he was pleased his side made a 'cup tie' out of their match with Liverpool, despite going 2-0 down.
Speaking about the performance, Dean Smith said: "The best team won the game. I was disappointed with the defending for the first goal, it was poor from us. I thought they (Liverpool) had an awful lot of possession and we probably had the big chance (of the first half) with Teemu, with the one he out wide, but up until that first goal I was pleased with how aggressive we were without the ball and how we wanted to play.
"The goal, I thought, made them a little bit comfortable and put us on the back foot a little bit, and then we conceded from a set-piece. I thought it was poor, again, from us defensively, but then I have just watched it back and it is a hell of a strike from Minamino. At 2-0, at Anfield, the game can get away from you very quickly and I was determined that wasn't to happen and I said it to the players at half-time.
"I said: 'we need to make a proper cup tie of this' and I thought the players did that. We got on the front foot and we forced them into some mistakes at times. We just never took our chances in the end to get something out of it."
Dean said it was important, that with an 8.15pm kick-off and backed by 1,200 fans, that the team showed plenty of fight in the second half.
"The players knew that we were not thankful to having an 8.15pm kick-off tonight and our supporters have travelled all the way from Norfolk and we had to make sure we put in a fight for them as much as anything else.
"We did that, we pushed as much as we could and we made changes. The players came on made an impact as well so that was really pleasing. I was pleased for likes of Zimbo (Cristoph Zimmermann), it was his first game for a while and I thought he was excellent, and Sam Byram I thought was excellent too. It was good for those players to get minutes and you could see for the last 10 to 15 minutes and Dimi (Dimitris Giannoulis) was struggling with cramp so it was like playing with 10-and-a-half players at the end."