Palace dump Pool out of Cup
Dougie Freedman was sent off in the second-half but the Palace boss watched his 10-man side grab a stunning 2-0 fourth-round replay victory.
Julian Gray scored the first and Stephane Henchoz finished off his own side with an own goal both in the second half.
Afterwards Francis said: "I've won here twice as a player for Birmingham and Manchester City, but never as a manager. I've had three goes now as a manager and finally made it.
"When I was manager at Birmingham, we ran them close in the Worthington Cup Final, then 10 days ago we should have beaten them at our place. This time we did it," he said.
Francis said he had no complaints about the red card for Freedman, saying: "I didn't see it too clearly but I've spoken to the referee and he's said it was an elbow so I've no complaints about it. Dougie was fouled and retaliated."
Liverpool chief Gerard Houllier looked stunned by the result, and pin-pointed the turning point as Emile Heskey's amazing miss when he ran 70 yards on his own but still failed to beat keeper Cedric Bertelin.
Houllier added: "That miss deflated the rest of the team and the lack of belief showed. Emile was one-on-one mentally we sunk after that, it was a bad day for us."
The Anfield boss added: "We should have finished it by half-time, we wasted so many chances. We should have qualified by the break after playing with so much quality in that first half.
"But you have to score those chances. If you don't you are always in danger of being caught on the break, which is what they did.
"I was disappointed with that goal, we had lost our shape and had no balance which is something you can't do when you are attacking so much.
"Michael Owen missed chances, Emile did, so did lots of the players. But we weren't dry of chances, we made an awful lot. We deserved to be ahead at the break but in the second half the longer it went on there was more chance of us being caught.
"They got their break and then it was a different game as their confidence was boosted and they had something to hang onto."
He added: "Obviously we are sad and disappointed, but sometimes these things happen in football."
Francis, along with Andy Johnson and Dele Adebola, were all with Birmingham when the Reds defeated them in a penalty shoot-out at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium to lift the Worthington Cup in 2001.
It has taken a while but Francis finally exorcised those demons by guiding Palace to only their second victory ever at Anfield in an amazing fourth-round replay made all the more remarkable by the fact they played the last 20 minutes with only 10 men.
Liverpool subjected Palace to a constant barrage, creating chance after chance - with Michael Owen the main culprit on a shocking night of profligacy but it was Palace's amazingly defiant defence that kept them in it long enough for Gray and then an own goal from Henchoz from a Gray cross to send the Eagles soaring.
They now face Leeds at Selhurst Park in the next round as all talk of Liverpool going to Cardiff twice they will meet Manchester United in the Worthington final next month was totally destroyed.
And for Palace it was equal revenge for losing to Liverpool in the semi-final of that competition in 2001.
Liverpool had only themselves to blame for missing a hatful of chances. They had no Steven Gerrard, although did have Owen and the returning Dietmar Hamann back, and they sent about Palace like men possessed.
But they must have got back to the dressing room at half-time wondering how on earth they were not out of sight. A boxing match would have been stopped long before to save the opponents from further punishment.
But Palace, who had lost only two of their previous 12, certainly showed they could defend.
LIVERPOOL: Dudek, Carragher, Henchoz, Hyypia, Riise, Diouf, Murphy (Baros 67), Hamann, Cheyrou, Owen, Heskey.
CRYSTAL PALACE: Berthelin, Symons, Powell, Popovic, Butterfield, Mullins, Derry, Gray, Granville (Freedman 36), Adebola (Akinbiyi 90), Johnson (Thomson 88).
Referee: P Dowd (Staffordshire).
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
