Henderson: That's why we're told to never give up
Jordan Henderson was delighted by Liverpool's spirit and attitude after they came from a goal down to grab a stoppage-time winner with 10 men against Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Joe Ledley had fired the Eagles into a second-half lead at Selhurst Park, and things took a further turn for the worse for the Reds when James Milner was sent off for a second bookable offence.
However, Jürgen Klopp's men dug deep and Roberto Firmino equalised when a poor clearance from Palace goalkeeper Alex McCarthy fell straight to the Brazilian international, who slotted home his eighth goal of the season.
Then, in the fourth minute of stoppage-time, the referee awarded a penalty for a challenge on Christian Benteke and the Belgian picked himself up to claim a dramatic win from the spot.
“It was a tough game, especially in the first half when it was a battle,” Henderson told Liverpoolfc.com.
“The second half didn’t start well and we conceded a goal, but from then I thought we grew in confidence, grew throughout the game and in the end I thought we deserved the three points with the chances we created.
“It shows that we never give up and we always go right until the end, which the manager has drummed into us.
“Since he’s [come in], I think that’s been one of the big things for us, to keep going right until the end no matter what the circumstances are.
“I felt as though we did that, even when we went 1-0 down and [down to] 10 men, we kept going and we got better as the game went on with the ball.
“We were moving it quicker, created chances and, for me, we deserved to win.”
On the last-gasp spot-kick converted by Benteke, Henderson insisted he had no doubt about the outcome when he saw the No.9 step up to the plate.
The captain added: “I’ve seen him take penalties before in a shootout and also in training. He’s very cool on penalties so I was full of confidence in him.”
Henderson admitted the previous 3-0 victory over Manchester City had buoyed the team and they now head into the Europa League last-16 clash with Manchester United in even finer spirits.
“It was a good performance from us in midweek and it gave us a lot of confidence,” he said.
“Coming here, we felt as though we could win the game.
“We knew it would be difficult, which it was at times, and we didn’t play some of our best stuff, but at times we played very well and managed to create some good chances.
“It was a good finish from Roberto and then we created the chance for the penalty.
“Overall, it’s a very good day and we can take a lot of confidence from it.”