Steven Gerrard felt Aston Villa pushed Manchester City all the way at Villa Park on Wednesday night.
Pep Guardiola’s title chasers led 2-0 at half-time thanks to goals from Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva.
But Villa rocked the reigning Premier League champions with Ollie Watkins’ strike early in the second half before applying pressure in their pursuit of an equaliser.
“We were really close to taking something out of the game. The second half performance was really good,” Gerrard said.
“I thought we started the game with too much respect for them and we were a little bit passive. It took us 15 minutes to get into the game.
“Once we started getting a foothold in the game and putting some passages of play together, we actually conceded a goal, which was disappointing.
“At 1-0 that’s ok – you reset yourself. The second goal was the blow. I said to the boys at half-time that it’s important we score the next goal.
“We were more positive and we had more belief in ourselves. I thought we were terrific in the second half and we really made a game of this and took City all the way.”
This was the 41-year-old’s first loss as head coach after he began his reign with victories against Brighton and Crystal Palace.
And despite the result, Gerrard felt that a game against a team with the quality that City possess will benefit Villa.
He said: “We needed this game at this time – two weeks in. We said before the game it was a real acid test for us.
“City, at times, looked a level above. At times it was an education for us, but we said to the players let’s make it as difficult as we can, let’s take the game to the wire, let’s believe in ourselves.
“I thought it took us ten or 15 minutes to have that belief and that courage. Once we did, I thought we were terrific at times.
“There’s obviously a gap in the levels, but we’ll keep trying to grow and evolve and close that gap.”
