Roy Keane shocks by praising Liverpool as he questions if Manchester City are really a ‘great’ team

Roy Keane hailed Liverpool’s “great” victory over Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday night and claimed the 3-0 defeat was a wake-up call for Pep Guardiola’s side.

Goals from Mohamed Salah, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sadio Mane put the Reds in a healthy position ahead of the return leg at the Etihad next week, with a semi-final place at stake.

Former Manchester United captain Keane is one of the harshest critics of Liverpool, often deriding the fans or tactics employed by Jurgen Klopp this season, so the praise may come as somewhat of a shock to Reds supporters.

“Great team performance,” said Keane, speaking on ITV's Champions League Highlights show. “We've seen it previously that Liverpool have players that can hurt Manchester City on the counter-attack and they got heavily punished tonight.

“Liverpool, from a team performance, were outstanding. I thought the three players in midfield were outstanding as well. I thought [James] Milner, [Jordan] Henderson, [Alex] Oxlade-Chamberlain gave them that foundation to go on and win the game and I bet you Liverpool can't believe their luck to be 3-0 up.

“Okay, it will be a tough second leg, but Liverpool will still fancy themselves to get an away goal and then the tie will be over.”

He saved his wrath for Manchester City this time though, claiming they looked “shell-shocked” and dismissed them as being the “great” team people are calling them.

“There has been a lot of hype about this Manchester City team, talk about them being a great team,” he added. “It was a reality check for this team tonight, they have a lot to do yet before they want to be regarded as a great team.

“You look at City players there, they will be shell-shocked. There is no way they would have visualised being 3-0 down after the first leg tonight. Even if they thought they were in for a tough night, I'm sure they thought they were going to score a goal, so they will be shell-shocked.

“I think for what we have seen this season, they showed a real lack of quality tonight but you have to give Liverpool credit for that.”