Gary O'Neil expresses pride as Wolves' season comes to an end

But they recovered with an improved second 45 that left O’Neil pleased with what he saw.

“I’m really proud of the performance,” O’Neil said. “It was a tough game made tougher when we went down to 10 men and from that moment you know it’ll be really tough for us.

“I was disappointed that the two goals came from headers. You wouldn’t expect that to be the way we fall down.

Fight

“But we came out in the second half, didn’t concede a goal and fight, and created some decent moments as well.

“Rayan and Cunha should make sure their chance ends up in the back of the net, and we had Pedro’s free-kick as well.

“I’m really proud. We knew how tough it would be in the second half with the emotion and the drive of Liverpool to finish in style in front of the Kop. We managed to resist really well.

“I’m disappointed that it ended up being that because we wanted to come here and have a really good game, but it was taken away from us fairly early.”

Wolves have endured a season full of VAR interventions and Semedo’s sending off has once again split opinion. But O’Neil felt the technology was used incorrectly as the decision to give Semedo a yellow card was overturned.

“I was disappointed with it,” O’Neil said. “The ref had a really good view. At full speed Nelson’s fractionally late and lands on his foot.

“It can definitely be a yellow card. I don’t understand the need for VAR to get involved.

“The VAR don’t even pause it at the right place. They pause it when Nelson’s foot is really high and in line with his shin, but he hasn’t made contact yet and completely misses his shin before landing on his foot. There’s no way VAR was brought in to get involved in things like that, where the ref has been really clear.

“I think most of football would agree it’s a yellow card and probably a strong yellow card.

“If the ref had decided it was a red I wouldn’t expect VAR to get involved and overturn it, so I don’t understand the need for VAR to get involved in that.

“They then don’t feel the need to get involved in the Cunha penalty one.

“It’s not the technology’s fault, but it needs to be used better. There’s no need to send Nelson off the pitch for that.” Meanwhile, O’Neil has played down fears over Pablo Sarabia’s injury.

The attacker was a doubt to face Liverpool after picking up an unspecified knock and he was not included in the squad yesterday afternoon.

But Sarabia is expected to recover quickly and has avoided a serious injury.

“It’s a small injury, nothing serious, and he’ll be fine for pre-season,” O’Neil said. “He also potentially has a tournament (with Spain) in the summer, I don’t know if he’ll be involved or not, but he would be fine for that as well I think.”