Dominik Szoboszlai has accused Liverpool of lacking fighting spirit after their 4-0 FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Manchester City. The midfielder issued a stark warning to his teammates, suggesting their Champions League hopes could be in jeopardy unless they improve quickly.
Liverpool started brightly at the Etihad but collapsed after Erling Haaland scored from the penalty spot, following Virgil van Dijk's foul on Nico O'Reilly. Haaland added a second in first-half stoppage time, effectively ending the contest. Antoine Semenyo made it 3-0 in the 50th minute, and Haaland completed his hat-trick seven minutes later.
Speaking after the match, Szoboszlai said: 'The fighting spirit wasn't there enough, the mentality wasn't there enough. None of us were there to be honest as much as we could.' He added: 'It's a hard time, but we have to stick together. On Wednesday there is another chance, but we have to get it in our head that this is not the season we would like to end.'
The Hungarian international identified the second goal as the turning point, saying: 'There is one minute left, and you could go into half-time at 1-0, and you concede another one before that... few teams can come back from 2-0 down against City.'
Liverpool now face a Champions League quarter-final first leg away to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, their last chance for silverware this season. Szoboszlai warned: 'We have to pull ourselves together, because if we play like this, we can very quickly forget about the Champions League participation and next year's Champions League participation as well.'
