Carlo Ancelotti said he wanted to make history with Everton after becoming the first manager to lead the club to victory over Liverpool at Anfield since 1999.
The Italian was full of praise for Jordan Pickford, his team’s defending and their clinical finishing as Everton ended a miserable run at Anfield. Ancelotti believes the performance showed his team can compete with the leading lights of the Premier League but must be replicated at Goodison Park, where Everton have won four league games this season compared with eight away.
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“I realise I was the manager that beat Liverpool after 21 years,” the three-times Champions League-winning coach laughed. “I don’t know if this is enough to be in the history of this club but if it is not enough then I am working on it.
“What this victory means is that we can compete, using our quality, maybe not the technical quality of Liverpool but we had a strong spirit and our belief is improving. Of course, we have to improve. We have to be better at home because the run away is fantastic but at home it is not good enough.”
Pickford, under scrutiny after the controversy that surrounded his performance against Liverpool in October, produced several excellent saves to condemn Jürgen Klopp’s side to a fourth successive Anfield defeat. “This is the Pickford which everyone knows,” said Ancelotti. “Confident in the game, secure in the game, intelligent in the game. He was confident, he wanted to play and he showed this confidence on the pitch.”
Liverpool’s latest defeat was a first in the Merseyside derby for Klopp, who admitted the champions only had themselves to blame for the end of a 23-game unbeaten run in the fixture. “It hurts a lot,” the Liverpool manager said. “But we conceded a completely unnecessary first goal. In one situation we didn’t defend well enough and we didn’t use their mistakes or the things we created, and that’s why we have the result.”
1:11Klopp questions penalty that sealed Everton’s first win at Anfield since 1999 – video
Klopp bemoaned the award of the late penalty against Trent Alexander-Arnold. “I wanted to talk to the referee after the game but they left already. I wanted to ask what he saw. If VAR calls you over like that, I think there is doubt about the situation, but he needed only a second. He went there, watched from three or four yards and then turned and said penalty. I didn’t see it back yet, but everybody who speaks to me says the same thing: how can that be a penalty?”
