“My over-riding emotion after the game is of real pride," said the Liverpool boss. “We played Arsenal earlier on in the season and they outplayed us and we were disappointing.
“I always thought this would be a good game to use as a benchmark to see how we’ve been progressing.
“It’s a game we should have won. We didn’t, but we showed great resilience and quality and had other chances to get other goals. I’m very proud of the team.”
The Reds boss added: “It was a good reaction from Sunday, but Sunday was more my fault than their’s. I’m a great believer in young players and I look at maybe the depth of our squad and put a lot of trust into them.
“The problem is that when I put them in and maybe don’t have some of our big players it’s difficult.
“That’s how it was for us on Sunday. Obviously we’re bitterly disappointed to go out, but I never had any second thoughts that we’d get a reaction because these players have been brilliant.
“They’re improving all the time and tonight was more evidence towards that.”