FABIO AURELIO today admitted Liverpool must eradicate the tendency of shooting themselves in the foot to save their Champions League dreams.
Though they never engaged top gear, the Reds looked poised to collect three crucial points at Stoke on Saturday before conceding another 90th-minute goal. This season has been crammed with last-gasp calamities, from meetings with Lyon in the Champions League to Reading in the FA Cup, and Aurelio says it has taken a mental toll.
The Brazilian ace was desperately frustrated the Reds could not build on Sotirios Kyrgiakos first goal for the club, but is hoping for better fortune on Wednesday.
Tottenham are up next and Aurelio insists taking three points off them will help make up for the frustration felt leaving Britannia Stadium.
“We deserved more,” he said “It’s always a difficult game at Stoke. They are a very physical team who play a lot of long balls and they try to win a lot of second balls.
“Conceding these late goals takes a lot out of you as a player.
“We came here knowing that we could win and we were practically there.
“Suddenly one ball, one corner and it’s 1-1. It didn’t leave us much time to recover. This was an opportunity to start winning again but we’ve missed it.
“We are so disappointed. Even after they equalised, we had a chance to win. We were unlucky when Dirk (Kuyt) hit the post and even then Lucas should have had a penalty.”
Aurelio’s compatriot was bundled over as Kuyt attempted to win the game in the dying seconds, but that claim was nowhere as strong as the one he was denied in the first half.
Lucas, though, ended up being booked by referee Lee Mason for diving after tangling with Danny Higginbotham and Aurelio believes those incidents are indicative of Liverpool’s luck.
“There were a lot of decisions that the referee just didn’t see,” he said.
“Last season, that header would have hit the post and gone in but this season it is going the other way.
“The attitude of the team was very good, as we know things have been going against us. We know we have to step up our game and fight – then the football comes after that.
“We mentioned before the game we just had to let the referee do his job and not speak to him because he has not been very good for us in the past.
“In the end we had to push him on things because we could see a lot of decisions should have been in our favour.”
Liverpool’s side was patched up, given the absence of Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard and Yossi Benayoun, but Aurelio says the team has to show they can cope. “We can take confidence from the performance,” he said. “We are missing a lot of quality players, who do important things for us but our players will take responsibility.”
Torres, meanwhile, underwent a successful operation to trim the meniscus in his knee in Barcelona on Saturday.
He was operated on by Dr Ramon Cugat, who consulted him earlier in the season when the Spaniard was nursing a groin problem.
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