Liverpool traveled to the Etihad for the FA Cup quarterfinal on April 4, 2026, and left on the wrong side of a 4-0 scoreline. The margin wasn't a fluke. The performance was a collapse, and Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai said exactly that afterward.
"The fighting spirit wasn't there enough, the mentality wasn't there enough," Szoboszlai told reporters. "It's hard to find word,s to be honest. We wanted this one so much."
How It Happened
Liverpool started the match competitively. Then came a 20-minute stretch straddling halftime where Manchester City scored four times in rapid succession, and Liverpool had no answer. Once behind, they couldn't respond — which is becoming a pattern.
The damning number: Liverpool has won only 2 of their last 19 matches when falling behind. That's not bad luck. That's a structural problem with this team — an inability to come from behind, to change the game, to fight when the circumstances turn against them. Szoboszlai called it a mentality issue, and the data backs him up.
What This Means for the Season
The FA Cup was Liverpool's best remaining route to silverware. That's gone now. The 4-0 loss raises hard questions about where this team actually is — because the gap between Liverpool's early-season form and this result is significant.
Szoboszlai is one of the few players willing to say what happened plainly rather than offer diplomatic non-answers. "When you do something and there is no result for it, it makes no sense," he said, a signal that there's frustration inside the dressing room, not just outside it.
Liverpool has a midweek fixture next. The response to this result will say more about the squad than the defeat itself.
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