“Cost us the game…” – Nottingham Forest’s Steve Cooper highlights defining moments in Liverpool defeat

Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper has suggested that “a defining two minutes” cost his side the game in their 1-0 FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Liverpool yesterday. 

The Championship side fought defiantly but Diogo Jota’s 78th-minute goal was enough to ensure that the visitors made it through to the semi-finals at Wembley.

Jota’s winner came just two minutes after Philip Zinckernagel had failed to convert Brennan Johnson’s cross from 10 yards out.

Forest had more chances after going behind but, speaking to club media, Cooper highlighted the two-minute spell that saw Zinckernagel miss and Jota find the net as the deciding moments.

He said: “We lost. You know me, I will always look at the performance but I never want to be too happy when we don’t win a football match.

“I think there was a defining two minutes in the end. We had a couple of chances, or one big change, and didn’t quite take it and then they do the opposite at the other end. In the end that has cost us the game.”

Overall, the Forest boss reflected positively at what he’d seen from his players – who gave Liverpool more of a battle than many Premier League teams have been able to this season.

“Listen, we know Liverpool are excellent,” Cooper continued. “We knew it before we played them, we’ve seen it in the game but I thought on the whole we handled it fairly well.

“We knew we wouldn’t have as much of the ball as what we’ve had or what we’d like, we accept that, but I did say at half time: ‘Be a bit braver with the ball.’

“Because some of the moves first half were excellent, we just needed a bit more of it. I just asked them to take a bit more responsibility with the ball and we did and we created some really, really good chances.

“If someone had said before