Gary Neville believes Liverpool deserve 'real credit' for their third-place finish in the Premier League.
A 2-0 win against Crystal Palace on the final day of the Premier League season saw Liverpool secure third and Champions League football for next season.
At one stage, that appeared extremely unlikely for Jurgen Klopp's side but a fine sequence of results, accompanied by Leicester City's downturn in form, saw the tide change.
Sadio Mane scored a brace as the Reds extended their unbeaten run to 10-games in front of 10,000 supporters at Anfield.
Neville was initially left in shock live on Sky as he learned of Liverpool’s final position in the table before going on to praise them for the achievement of securing Champions League football.
“Have they finished third? How’s that happened?!” the former Manchester United defender said when shown the final league table.
The Sky Sports pundit then added: “It is (an amazing achievement). I know I was joking then but honestly.
“Losing Van Dijk, it had a massive impact on Liverpool but it also had a massive impact on City.
Were you expecting Liverpool to finish as high as third going into the final few weeks of the season? Let us know in the comments.
“They knew Liverpool couldn’t come back from it and they knew once Liverpool were out that that was it really.
"There was no one else that was equipped to compete with them.
“So for Liverpool to come back from six home defeats on the bounce, wow. To come back the way they have, you have to give them real credit.”
While Klopp said of his side’s top four achievement: "I'm so proud of what they've done the last ten or 15 games and the reaction of the team in bad times.
"Eight wins out of ten, two draws... that's impressive. Energy makes all the difference and we got a lot of energy from [the fans].
"It was not our year for the championship but I'm really happy with third place."
