'I thanked Benteke for the perfect birthday present'
Simon Mignolet had a birthday to remember as 10-man Liverpool came from behind to beat Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon.
Jürgen Klopp's side responded brilliantly to Joe Ledley's opener and the dismissal of James Milner to leave Selhurst Park with an unlikely win.
Roberto Firmino capitalised on an error from goalkeeper Alex McCarthy in the 72nd minute before second-half substitute Christian Benteke won and dispatched a penalty right at the end.
Mignolet was especially thankful to his compatriot for giving him something to celebrate on the day of his 28th birthday.
“I went up to Christian straight after the final whistle and thanked him for giving me the perfect birthday present. I really wanted those three points,” the goalkeeper said.
“He made a big impact when he came off the bench. When you have players like Christian and Phil [Coutinho] to bring off the bench, it shows the strength of the squad at the moment. They changed the game and I thought we deserved to win in the end.
“Everyone is pleased with how we reacted to going a man down.
“Tactically, maybe it actually helped us a bit because we played with three at the back and we stopped the counter-attacks from Palace by doing that.
“They sat back and let us back in the game. We played so well with 10 men. We defended really well and created chances.”
It was a memorable conclusion to a good week for the Reds, who have responded well to their Capital One Cup final heartache by winning back-to-back games in the Barclays Premier League.
The Belgian now hopes the team can take their form into Thursday's Europa League last-16 first leg with arch-rivals Manchester United at Anfield.
Mignolet added: “The gaffer told us that when you fall off a horse, you have to jump up and climb back on it again.
“We’ve done that after what happened in the final. It still hurts but we have got two big wins.
“Everything can change very quickly in the Premier League and we need to keep going.
“Now it’s the Europa League and that’s a competition we want to do really well in. You can see we’re playing with confidence. We want to build on this.”