Patrick Vieira explains Crystal Palace gameplan that led to Liverpool frustration

Patrick Vieira admits Crystal Palace had a plan to cope with Liverpool after inflicting more frustration on Jurgen Klopp’s side.

Palace ended a run of 10 successive defeats against the Reds with a 1-1 Premier League draw at Anfield on Monday evening.

Wilfried Zaha fired the visitors into a first-half lead before Luis Diaz equalised on 61 minutes shortly after Darwin Nunez had been dismissed on his home debut for a headbutt on Palace defender Joachim Andersen.

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And a pleased Vieira said: “We are really happy with a point. Overall I think Liverpool had the chances, we had a couple of good ones. But I’m happy with the point.

“It’s not easy to stay calm here. With the crowd and the atmosphere we managed the situation really well. We needed to be calm and concentrated on what we wanted to do and we did that.

“Our plan was executed by the players. We didn’t show any kind of frustration. We remained calm and composed and we made it really difficult for them. The first 15-20 minutes was a bit challenging with the runs behind our back line but we managed to defend that quite well.”

Vieira added: “We managed to stay in the game and got the first goal. At places like this you need a solid team performance and that’s what we had today.

“Wilfried didn’t touch the ball very much but he was really dangerous tonight. We could have won it but we could have lost it as well. I’m pleased with the quality we showed today and showed more sides of our game we need to show more often.”

Of Nunez's red card, the Palace boss said: “I haven’t had a chance to see it yet. It’s difficult to have a comment as I didn’t see it.”

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