Liverpool Under-23s manager Neil Critchley is remaining upbeat, following his sides stoppage-time heartache against Porto in the Premier League International Cup.

Matthew-Virtue-Thick- who is on-loan at Notts County- returned and scored the opening goal of what was a bitterly cold evening at Leigh Sports Village. However, the visitors struck back early in the second half through Bruno Costa and then booked their place in the semi-finals courtesy of Santiago Irala’s last-gasp winner.

While this was an extremely cruel way to bow out of this competition, Critchley was adamant that there were more positives than negatives to draw from this.

“I thought it was a really good game against good opposition- it was a tough match for us. Physically they were better than us, they had a bit more experience than us- and that showed- but the boys competed very well and showed good organisation.

“We were doing very well to be winning 1-0 at half-time and, of course, we hit the post just before the break which would have made it 2-0. That was a big moment in the game.

“When they equalised in the second half, we showed a really good response and good character.

“We had a couple of chances ourselves at the end, as did they, and I thought we were just going to weather the storm but we concede in the last kick of the game- which is funny because we’re at their end of the pitch in a really good situation, which we didn’t capitalise on. 15 seconds later, the ball is in the back of our net and we’re out of the competition. “

Despite narrowly missing out on a last four place, things could have turned out much worse for the Reds.

Danny Ward was the stand-out performer, as the Welshman produced a string of late saves to keep the game in the balance.  However, despite his late heroics, there was little he could do about Irala’s match-winner.

“It was a top-drawer performance. I thought some of his saves; particularly in the second half, were outstanding.

“We didn’t protect him well enough. We didn’t stop crosses coming in and we didn’t defend the crosses well enough all night- and ultimately that’s what has cost us the game, Critchley said. ”

At times during the match, the gulf in class between the competition holders and Liverpool was quite apparent.  There were a few noticeable absentees, which the Liverpool manager explained. He was also keen to stress his faith in his new-look and rather fresh-faced side- including the likes of: Liam Millar, Neco Williams, Adam Lewis and Elijah Dixon-Bonner.

 “Curtis (Jones), Rafa( Camacho) and Ben ( Woodburn), are in the first-team training and preparing and Yan(Dhanda) has a slight issue with his thigh; which he felt in training yesterday- so we didn’t want to risk it.

“The boys haven’t been overrun or battered.  We took the holders of the competition right to the 94^th minute.

“Yes we’re younger but I think these boys are ready for the challenge and they’ve proven that tonight- which they also did against West Ham United.

“There are fine lines in games and we lost. But this group of lads will learn so much from this game and it’s a great experience for them”, he stated.

 Despite missing out on a piece of silverware, going forwards the focus is firmly on development as opposed to collecting winner’s medals.

“The priority is always our players strengthening. Are they getting better? Are they getting an appropriate challenge? Are the games the right level for them? Instead of us winning comfortably every week thinking everything is hunky-dory, maybe a game like tonight is better, to teach us a bit more about our players.”

In last season’s International Cup Liverpool crashed out in the group stages but, on this occasion, were inches away from the semi-finals. While this was a tough pill to swallow, Critchley heaped praise on the Dragons who thwarted the Reds’ shot of glory.

“We always want to try and progress and go as far as we can.  Porto won this competition last year and you can see why. They are an excellent team who are well organised, well coached and well drilled. It’s very difficult to play against them.

“We’ve had some good games in this competition and that’s why we’re here- it would have been nice to go one step further but we haven’t been able to do tonight, Critchley concluded.”

Tom Cavilla.