FC Midtjylland coach Brian Priske was thrilled to see his side strike fear into the heart of ‘one of the world’s best teams’ during the 1-1 Champions League draw with Liverpool, as he told Ekstra Bladet.
Of course, Priske’s comments must be taken with a sprinkling of salt.
It was not a full-strength Liverpool side who travelled to Denmark for the final group-stage fixture on Wednesday, after all.
While there was a start for Mo Salah, Divock Origi, Rhys Williams and Kostas Tsimikas also featured as Leighton Clarkson and Billy Koumetio were handed their Champions League debuts.
Salah opened the scoring inside a minute in Jutland, overtaking Steven Gerrard to become Liverpool’s all-time European goal-scorer. But Mitdjylland fought back impressively and were unfortunate not to take all three points after a dominant second-half display.
Alexander Scholz secured a creditable draw with a 62nd-minute penalty.
Yet Midtjylland were left with a nagging sense of ‘what might have been’ after squandering their chance to secure a famous win against the 2019 European champions.
“I think we all knew that today we were going to meet one of the world’s best teams. But huge praise for the way the players let go of the brake in the second half, and completely dominate Liverpool,” says Priske, a former Portsmouth defender.
Midtjylland captain Erik Sviatchenko struck a similar tone after a game in which the hosts outshot their much-vaunted visitors 20-7.
“They had problems. Although they are world stars, they felt stressed that we came flying (out of the blocks),” said the ex-Celtic man.
“They seemed a little frustrated and we had a feeling that there was more than one goal (for us). Had we just had that tinge of cold blood, then we would have also scored more goals
“We showed in the second half, we really deserved to win.”
If it wasn’t for a goal-line clearance from Fabinho, another fine Champions League save from Caomhin Kelleher and some truly awful finishing, Midtjylland would have got the result they felt they deserved.
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