Liverpool suffered their home defeat in one year after they were beaten 1-0 by ten-man Inter Milan in their return leg of the Uefa Champions League. Jurgen Klopp however believes his side deserves to be in the Champions League quarter-finals despite some “slapstick” finishing.
An outstanding finish by Argentine Lautaro Martinez was not enough for the Italian champions to see them to the next stage of the competition but was just enough to break their home record. The first leg of their tie ended 2-0 in favor of Liverpool goals from Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah was enough to give them the victory.
Jurgen Klopp who earlier warned his players before the start of the game about the Italians not coming for tourism at Anfield had his warning manifested as the visitors won the day. The German said: “The art of football is to lose the right games.” He also said: “I still hate it, but if there was any game we could have afforded to lose it was this one because the main target of this competition is to get through.”
“It’s not that I am over the moon – I’m really happy we went through because when we saw the draw it was ‘OK, that’s a tough one. But we went through over two legs and I think we deserved it. The manager said if they had used their chances from set-pieces and other situations – it was a bit slapstick how they missed the chances.
MMartinez’ssecond-half goal gave the victors the win in the game. The Inter Milan skipper gave Alisson no chance with an arrowed finish from 20 yards in the 61st minute. But Inter’s hopes of forcing extra time with a second goal faded as former Barcelona and Arsenal Chilian forward Alexis Sanchez was sent off just two minutes after he received his first yellow card.
Liverpool hit the woodwork three times in a bad-tempered game. After Joel Matip got the first bar with a header before Mohamed Salah got either bar of the Inter Milan post. In addition to Sanchez’s red card, saw six other players booked.