Rafa praises his defence

"After the time with a lot of injuries, some players are coming back and then we will see the difference hopefully in the next weeks," said the Liverpool boss after the Goodison encounter.

"It was very difficult. We knew that it could be physical given the position of both teams and that they needed to win.

"We were working hard and had one or two chances and were maybe lucky with the deflection.

"But they were playing long balls and set-pieces and we were trying to defend and working very hard.

"The defenders were really good. Their full-backs and keeper were always kicking the ball long and it was difficult, but we knew it would be like that.

"We were playing counter-attack because we were under pressure all the time, but I think that we had two or three very good counter-attacks."