Nacer reflects on Reds loss

Nacer Chadli felt if one of our chances were converted at 1-0 - including his - it might have been a different game against Liverpool.

Instead the Reds, ahead after eight minutes through Raheem Sterling, ended up 3-0 winners at the Lane with further goals from Steven Gerrard’s penalty on 49 minutes and Alberto Moreno’s strike on the hour.

However, we had two big opportunities to reply at 1-0. First, Emmanuel Adebayor went through and lobbed onto the roof of the net and then Nacer timed his burst forward to get onto Younes Kaboul’s pass and with the ball bouncing, struck a volley that Simon Mignolet tipped over.

That was just before half-time but instead of finding ourselves level going into the break, we were 2-0 down less than five minutes into the second half.

“They scored very early and it was difficult for us,” said Nacer, who scored twice in last week’s 4-0 win over QPR.

“We had the chances to come back, I had one, Ade as well and if we’d scored, perhaps it’s a different game. After that, Liverpool were more confident and scored the second and third goals.

“When the ball came through to me I thought it would go a little in front of me but it stopped so I had to make a fast choice, because the defender was coming back so I took the volley. It’s a shame the ball didn’t go into the net but he made a good save.”

It was our first defeat in five competitive matches this term and first in the Premier League but with international break now upon us, we’re sitting handily in sixth in the early standings before our next match at Sunderland on Saturday, September 13.

“Everyone is disappointed but we have to keep our heads up and work hard to come back,” added Nacer. “Like the gaffer said, we need to improve and play better in the next game against Sunderland.”