“They give a lot of pressure and it raised the atmosphere in the stadium. They created good chances but we have a very good goalkeeper and because of that we were in a match.

“Liverpool created an atmosphere that was fantastic. They played well and we could not cope with that pressure.”

Van Gaal still felt Liverpool’s goals were ‘cheap’, claiming an offside in the build-up to Firmino’s second half strike.

“It was a cheap penalty and they received another cheap goal. Henderson was offside,” said Van Gaal.