Mac Allister reveals key tactic that led to Liverpool's victory over Arsenal

The Liverpool midfielder has shared how the team overcame a dominant first-half performance from Arsenal to win their FA Cup tie in north London.

Alexis Mac Allister believes Liverpool countered Arsenal’s game plan by pressing more and using counter-attacks in the second half.

In Sunday’s third-round FA Cup tie, Arsenal had control of the game in the first half. Yet, Liverpool managed to turn things around after the break to score two decisive goals and secure a 2-0 victory. They went ahead in the 80th minute through Jakub Kiwior’s own goal, before Luis Diaz added a second in injury time.

“Maybe in the first half, they were better and had more opportunities, but we defended very well in the second half. We showed our mentality,” Mac Allister said on the club’s website.

“[Arsenal] did it very well and there was so much space in between us. That was not good because we always say where there is space it’s harder to defend. We corrected some things, we pressed a little bit more, we counter-attacked which is something that helps and we scored the goals.

“First half, we didn’t realize that they were doing this one-on-one over the whole pitch, but we learned in the second half. We played some long balls and put them into Darwin [Nunez] and Lucho [Luis Diaz] in behind and that was very important and they did well to help the team to attack and score goals.”

Sunday’s victory marked the first time Liverpool had beaten Arsenal in an away game in the FA Cup since 1964.

The Reds now aim to make it four wins in a row on Wednesday when Fulham visit them at Anfield. The two teams will compete in a first-leg clash in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup.