Marco Silva gave his honest reaction to the press after Fulham suffered a 2-1 defeat against Liverpool in the first leg semi-final clash of their Carabao Cup at Anfield.

The Reds scored twice within the space of three second-half minutes to turn the encounter around and take a slender advantage into the Craven Cottage meeting on January 24.

A Curtis Jones deflected strike cancelled out the 19th-minute opener from Willian before Cody Gakpo’s close-range finish secured the win.

“The tie is still tight,” Silva admitted. “We’ve lost the first half, so we’re going to have to go for it in the second at Craven Cottage. We played two very different halves, but I have to say, it wasn’t one of our best performances to be honest.

“Even so, in the first half we had a plan which was clear, not to leave any spaces behind us. We knew that we could control Liverpool better in that way and in the first half we didn’t give much away to them.

“The second half was different and we struggled a little bit more and we should’ve managed things in a different way after they made it 1-1. I believe we still had some good counter-attacking moments.”

He continued: “We lost a challenge in the middle of the pitch and then they score a bit of a lucky goal, I have to say. That changed the game and the only thing I’m really disappointed with is the way we managed the 10 minutes after that situation. We lost composure and maturity and you cannot concede a fast attack like that in that moment.

“The last 10 minutes were tough for us and they created a few good chances to score the third. The reality is that Leno kept us in the game and we’ll have to go for it at home. We’re going to fight for it because we have a real ambition to play at Wembley.”