Ten Hag said: "When it's Manchester Untied against Liverpool, it's one of the world's best football matches. It is historical. I thought first 35 minutes were the best I have seen from my team this season. We dropped off the level after that. You could see Liverpool were a very good team. We believed in our style and took our chances.
"Rashford had his moments, I thought he was very good. Today he misses but he is always there which is good. It inspired the rest of the team to keep going. He gave the example to keep going and believe.
"The team showed resilience and determination to win this game. We've had so many set backs. We are very strong mentally. We energised the fans, they got behind us and we won.
"We know he is capable of key moments by scoring goals and final passes.
"it doesn't matter who is the opponent. You have to play your best. Yesterday we saw Coventry are a very strong side. They played fantastic football and we have to play our best if we want to be in the final.
"We are still fighting. For a long time in the season, we are far behind that level but we are putting pressure on Spurs and Villa. Every game is a final and we lost one final against Fulham. Our goal is the Champions League and silverware."